


Time is of the Essence

by S_J_Ace



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: AU where they went to highschool together, Aged-Up Character(s), Comedy, Fluff, Gen, I'm also doing that great thing you can do in fiction where im pretending homophobia doesnt exist, M/M, Maki and Kaito are also in this, Saihara Shuichi Has Anxiety, They know each other and spent more than just a month or so hanging out in a killing game, but i dont want to spoil things here, mostly just Kokichi and Shuichi hanging out until something comes up in later chapters, so if there are any warnings they'll be in the author's notes, the biggest and most important thing is that the characters are actually friends in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-08-13 11:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20173822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_J_Ace/pseuds/S_J_Ace
Summary: Purple hair, purple eyes, pasty skin, and a laid back grin.Shuichi moved forward without thinking and opened the door."Kokichi?"---Considering the person he was in high school, a time in his life that was four years full of stress, anxiety, and a total of just three very good friends at any given time, Shuichi Saihara is surprisingly a functional adult. He's self employed as a private eye, has two roommates who have been his best friends since high school, and is finally managing to cope with his generalized anxiety long enough to get through his day-to-day.But none of that can stop him from dropping everything to spend the day with the guy he hadn't seen since graduation.





	1. Weird Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi is bad at sleeping and Maki bullies him about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last week I wrote 40 pages for this fic in a 24 hour fugue state. What follows is the first five pages all cleaned up.

Shuichi held the bomb in his hands, the red LEDs on the countdown display scrambling and flashing illegibly. What had it said before? Shuichi racked his brain. Ten minutes? Eyes. Eyes everywhere. They were blinking at him. Judging, breathing, expecting. They were angry. They were begging. Why did it have to be like this? Shuichi couldn't see the wires no matter how hard he tried, vision blurring. All he could see was the cold stare on his back. He had to move. He had to. Shuichi reached out for the flesh of the bomb and ripped as hard as he could.

Shuichi woke up breathing hard. 

Breathing.

He was breathing.

He was in his room. On his bed.

He dipped his toes into the safety of his familiar surroundings like a warm bath until he was fully submerged, the bad dream slipping from his mind as if it had been merely a furrow in his brow.

“I guess that’s what I get for crashing after three all-nighters…” he muttered to himself as he tested out his morning legs at the side of the bed.

Back when he was a teen, Shuichi used to get anxiety nightmares like this all the time, but nowadays it only happened when he stressed himself out the night before. Shuichi had just worked out a case on his client's dead husband that strongly indicated foul play in what was ruled to be an accidental death, although it had cost him a couple days of shoddy sleeping.

"Hey, Shuichi," Maki Harukawa, his roommate, knocked on his bedroom door as she called his name, "If you still want me to drop you off at the police station before I head to work you better have woken up five minutes ago."

"Sorry!" Shuichi called, scrambling to his feet. "I'll be ready to go in a second!"

Although Shuichi's room in the apartment didn't have a window, Shuichi tugged on a snug sweater knowing it had been so far a particularly chilly week of autumn. He also knew that sleep deprivation always made him a little colder in the mornings, like his body hadn't rested enough to charge his internal heating system. He pulled on some black jeans as fast as he could before heading towards the door out of his room.

He stopped with his hand on the knob, remembering he had tossed his coat at the foot of his bed. He pulled on his long black overcoat and grabbed some of the papers he had been pouring over last night. He checked his hair very quickly in the small mirror over his dresser before rushing out of his room to catch up with Maki as she opened the front door of their apartment.

She paused in the doorway, sending an analytical look his way.

"Did you fall asleep without taking off your eyeliner again?"

"Ah, no," Shuichi admitted, scratching the back of his head. "The bags under my eyes are just that bad this time."

Maki let out an exasperated sigh. "... Idiot. You really ought to start taking better care of yourself. Do you want to die? Get some sleep tonight."

Shuichi hummed thoughtfully as he slipped into his already laced up shoes. "The last few times you said that you promised you'd kill me if I didn't, and yet here we are."

Maki nodded sagely, poking Shuichi's head with her index finger like it was the barrel of a gun. "You’re right, I should keep my promises. Bang." She mimed the rebound of a gun shot. "Now you can finally get some sleep."

Shuichi batted her hand away. "It's really alright Maki. This is the last case on my agenda. After this, I can close the office for a couple of days to catch up on my beauty rest."

"Good. We both know you're the pretty face of this operation."

Shuichi laughed. "I thought that was Kaito."

Maki snorted, turning away to exit their apartment. "Kaito can be the face again when he gets back down here and shaves that stupid space beard of his."

Shuichi made a face. "Oh right," he said, "I forgot about the beard."

When Shuichi first met Kaito Momota he definitely did not have a beard. It was the first day of his Sophomore year gym class. Back then, Kaito only had a few wisps of pinkish-purple hair on his chin that he called a goatee. Kaito saw a lot of things that other people didn't see. He had seen standoffish Maki Harukawa and paralyzingly shy Shuichi Saihara sitting apart from the group in gym and declared them his sidekicks. Maki kicked _ him _ in the side, but he got right back up again and called her "Makiroll." Then, somehow, as if the power of Kaito's belief had made it so, they became best friends. They went through a lot together in high school and kept in touch during college while they each pursued their respective dreams. Kaito was enrolled in astronaut training in Maki's home town, and after Shuichi and Maki got out of school the three of them bought an apartment and moved in together. Shuichi started setting up his own private investigator practice and used some of his uncle's connections in establishing relationships with local law enforcement. Maki worked for a while at a daycare, but then Kaito… well, Kaito went to space. He started to bring in the big astronaut bucks and sent it home to Maki and Shuichi who weren't quite sure what to do with it. That was until Maki had an idea. She bought out the previous, shady benefactors of the orphanage she grew up in and used her degree in child development to ensure that the kids were being properly taken care of every day. In fact, after driving Shuichi to the police station and back, Maki was taking the car to go to the orphanage to help look after the kids like she did every day. Essentially, the reason Shuichi and Maki got along so well was that they were both hard workers in their own ways. While Shuichi latched onto one case at a time, burning the candle at both ends to get his work done as soon as possible, Maki was particularly good at finding a routine of work that she could handle and sticking to it reliably every day. This key difference in the way they operated, however, did not get in the way of them recognizing the genuine effort and passion they put into the things they did.

_ Maybe that was what Kaito had seen that no one else had on that day that we met, _Shuichi thought to himself absentmindedly as Maki took a right to get out of the apartment's parking garage.

"Shuichi are you even awake over there?" Maki asked, eyes shifting to him in concern. "We could stop and get some coffee before getting to the station."

Shuichi shook his head, half in response and half to rouse him from his daze. "No that's alright. I'll probably crash immediately after turning in this report to be honest…"

Maki frowned at him. "That isn't exactly reassuring, you know." 

Shuichi rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands. "R-right, you're right. Sorry. I just probably shouldn't have any more caffeine after solely subsisting off of it the past few nights."

"Well, I suppose you're right about that." Maki nodded decisively. "You're hereby banned from drinking any more espresso until you manage to get a full 10 hours of sleep."

"_ Ten _ hours? Continuously? Doesn't that seem-"

"You're right, not a long enough sentence for your sleep crimes. Get twelve hours."

"Hhh, can we stop talking about my future in sleep jail? I need to think awake thoughts while I hand my work over to Captain Kirigiri."

Captain Kyoko Kirigiri was the detective in charge of the local police station. She had come from the station Shuichi's uncle had worked in across the country and helped him on a few cases. By coincidence, she and Shuichi had ended up in the same area and nowadays when Shuichi's investigations actually turned up illegal activities he would report it to Kirigiri's station. On rare occasions, she would consult his professional opinion on some of the department’s cases.

After going through their morning pleasantries, Maki pulled over and stopped in front of the police station.

"I'm dropping you off here." She said, turning her face away from the police station. Shuichi couldn't tell if she was trying to hide her face or if she just didn't want to look at the building. Shuichi knew that when Maki had lived in this town as a kid she hadn't had the happiest life. The orphanage she now owned had once been completely reliant on a shady cult that taught children to kill for sport. After a big dust-up from the cops, a lot of kids were transferred far away, including Maki. When Shuichi and Kaito had met her she was grieving a friend who had died there, but not visibly. She had adopted the ideology of "that's just the way things are" and it took 3+ years of almost daily exposure to Kaito Momota to bring her around to believing in things again. Although Maki would never admit it, even all the time since then couldn't take away the painful memories she had endured in this very building.

Shuichi nodded in understanding. "Where are you heading then?"

She was still looking away. "Just to find a parking spot."

She was lying. Shuichi was good at figuring that stuff out. After all, he'd had a lot of practice… 

When Shuichi woke up there hadn't been the smell of any cooking on the stove or the microwave heating up. There weren't any new dishes in the sink since he cleaned up his stack of coffee cups before he crashed last night. It stands to reason to assume Maki did not have breakfast, but if Maki were just going to get breakfast she would've just told him, probably with a snide remark about the most important meal of the day, seeing as he had skipped breakfast as well. No, it must mean Maki was embarrassed about something… something embarrassing for breakfast…

Shuichi snapped his fingers, "You're going to the patisserie aren't you?"

Maki was still facing away, but Shuichi could see her cheeks puffed out in frustration.

"... Technically it's a Confectionary…" she turned to glare at him. "Stop using your gross detective brain on me and do your job already."

Shuichi recalled one night in a starry field far far away he had laid in the grass with Maki and Kaito after a set of push-ups. Kaito had been talking about his astronaut diet or something when Maki had broken in with a soft voice. She recalled her favorite memory of an old friend. They were playing house with her friend as the mom and Maki as the dad. They had made sweets together while the cook wasn't busy. And things were just nice. Shuichi knew that Maki couldn't give a damn about what anyone thought about her diet, least of all Shuichi who occasionally drank espresso for dinner and said "good enough." No, it was, perhaps, the emotional vulnerability of the connection. Her soft spot for sweets that she instinctively hid. 

Some of Shuichi's sympathy must have been slipping onto his face because Maki frowned at him. "Stop with the disgusting expression and get out of the damn car Shuichi."

"Fine fine!" Shuichi said, checking to see he had all his papers. "You don't have to tell me twice."

"I already did have to tell you twice."

Shuichi opened the door, pausing before getting all the way out. "And if you want to talk about-"

"_ Goodbye, _ Shuichi."

"R-right see you in a bit."

Shuichi hopped out of the car and started walking up to the station as Maki pulled away. An officer Shuichi didn't recognize tipped his hat at Shuichi as he exited the building. Shuichi himself hadn't worn a hat since he was 15, so he just nodded his head in response.

As he walked in the building he found Captain Kirigiri fairly quickly. Past the desks in the main room for the lower ranking detectives, Captain Kirigiri's office had it's door open. Kirigiri herself was shuffling through some files as if looking for something. She didn't notice him at first and Shuichi stood in the doorway for a few seconds considering his options. Would it be rude to interrupt her? Maybe he should come back later… but that would inconvenience both Maki and his client… well standing silently in the doorway wasn't really a good look either. Shuichi hesitated only a little further before clearing his throat and knocking on the door.

Captain Kirigiri broke her focus on the documents in front of her, looking a little startled. She seemed to relax when she saw it was just him. "Oh, it's you. How can I help you Saihara?"

He looked down into his papers. "I'm, uh, sorry to interrupt you Captain Kirigiri, you seem rather busy, it's just this case the department ruled accidental last month… "

Kirigiri held out her hand. Shuichi almost shook it out of instinct before remembering the papers in his hands. He tactfully handed them over to her. Kirigiri skimmed through them and Shuichi felt the familiar heart rate increase that came from having his work scrutinized. No matter how confident Shuichi was in the moment of his investigations' deductions, he was always a little anxious at what would happen next.

Kirigiri finished reading and gave Shuichi a look that he couldn't quite decipher. Was she going to tell him to buzz off? Maybe he really should have-

"I'll look into this. It's a solid case. We could use you on the force, Saihara. You always seem to be picking up our slack."

Shuichi shook his head a little shocked at the suggestion. "No, I wouldn't say that. Being able to set my own hours for investigations and only dealing with a few cases at a time has a lot to do with my deductions. I'm just not suited for department work."

Kirigiri nodded. "Understandable. While you're here, however, could you offer your insight on something?"

Shuichi hesitated. He didn't want to make Maki wait for him, but he supposed that Kirigiri would just ask him to look over a file before he left and offer some sort of connection she hadn't yet noticed.

"Um, yeah sure. I'd be happy to help."

Kirigiri nodded. "Very well."

Kirigiri, however, did not pull out a case file for him to squint at. She instead walked past him out of her office, and after a moment Shuichi deduced that meant he should follow her. 

"We've got a guy in interrogation." She started to explain. "We suspect he's some sort of big shot in a gang, but we're worried there might be more cult activity popping up." She paused in front of the door that lead to the interrogation area and turned to look him in the face. "The force has worked decades to dismantle the hold that sinister organizations have had on this town. I haven't heard anything like what this man has described, but if there's anything you know at all, tell me without hesitation."

Shuichi nodded, trying to look even half as stern as Kirigiri and failing. He felt a little nervous at this description. Just who was this guy? A violent gang member? Some sort of mob faction agent? A cult leader bent on forcing children to murder each other?

Kirigiri opened the door to the interrogation room. At first, it looked like a small hallway with a desk facing the right wall at the end. A bedraggled looking patrol officer sat at said desk scowling ahead through a large glass panel in the wall, presumably a one-way window to view the suspect with, seeing as there was a door beside it. To the right of the door was another table that had a pile of things that most likely were confiscated from the subject.

"We don't know what he's capable of, so be cautious." Kirigiri said, continuing down to the desk area, "Our officer here brought him in on suspicion of substance abuse, but he's completely clean and lucid as far as I can tell, which makes what he says all the more..."

Kirigiri's words faded to the background when Shuichi saw the figure behind the glass. A short man leaning back in a metal chair with his feet on the table even though his hands were cuffed to it. The odd pose, however, was not what drew Shuichi's attention.

Purple hair, purple eyes, pasty skin, and a laid back grin. 

Shuichi moved forward without thinking and opened the door.

"Kokichi?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! This is my first time publishing fic on ao3, a little nervous about it but trying to build my writing confidence back up before the school year! If you like it, let me know :)


	2. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi just met Kokichi for the first time since they graduated from high school. So we'll see how that goes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got very long so I had to cut it in half!

Kokichi Ouma in the flesh. It felt like it had been a century since Shuichi had seen that face.

Said face shifted into a pout. "Do you have to ruin eeeeverything Shumai?"

Shuichi blinked, mind reeling. "What?"

"Wow, that detective's wit of yours really got me this time" he slid his feet off the table and his chair fell into its normal position with a loud clunk. He gestured to emphasize his hand cuffs. "I'm compleeeetely at your mercy. How terrible!"

Shuichi balked. This was definitely Kokichi Ouma. Was he dreaming? Did he pass out at Kirigiri's office? What????

He was just standing in a daze in the doorway while Ouma went on about how his master plans were all ruined. He broke out of it when a voice cleared behind him and he whipped around to face Kirigiri who was a couple feet behind him.

"What is your… relation to the suspect Saihara?" The captain asked, eyeing Ouma suspiciously.

"I'm his-" Ouma started to say.

Shuichi decided to intervene before Ouma handed Kirigiri the shovel he had used to dig his own grave. "We dated in high school."

"We did?!"

Shuichi frowned at him "Of course we did."

Ouma looked exaggeratedly shocked, "Why wasn't I informed of this development?"

"... You're the one who asked me out."

"What???"

Shuichi took a deep breath, "Kokichi in the middle of our senior year you snuck into my room and asked me on a date to the carnival where we had ice cream and went on a ferris wheel. I gave you my phone number on the top of the wheel so you wouldn't sneak into my house anymore and saw you put three hearts next to my name. You won me a stuffed purple cat in that ball in cup game and then spent the rest of our money on fair food. When you took me home you kissed me on the cheek and told me you would kidnap me more often and I said that was alright with me."

"It was… a joke…"

"We went to prom together and you introduced me to your family as a foreign exchange student on the lamb from his home country then got upset when they wouldn't let me drive you anywhere because you had told them I was from a country that drives on the left side of the road."

"They didn't reeeally know that about Papua New Guinea…"

"Or when after graduation-"

"Wow Saihara you really remember all that? That's so laaame of you. I obviously forgot everything that happened at school immediately after graduation."

If he cut Shuichi off then he definitely remembered what happened after graduation. Of course he doesn't want to talk about what he did at graduation… To be honest Shuichi would've been a little embarrassed to bring it up in this setting too.

Suddenly remembering that he was a real life person in a real life police station and not, in fact, dreaming at all, Shuichi turned to address Captain Kirigiri. “I’m really sorry about this Captain. I’ve known Kokichi for a very long time, he’s a compulsive liar.”

“Who? Me?” Ouma looked at his fingernails as if he were disinterested. “You don’t know me at all Saihara, maybe I’ve changed in the time we’ve been apart. I’m completely on the straight and narrow nowadays!”

“... Kokichi you’ve been arrested… we’re in a police station right now.”

“Yeah? What’s that got to do with it?”

“... Are you wearing a straight jacket?”

“Oh you noticed! It really befits a criminal mastermind such as myself doesnt it?”

“But you just said-” Shuichi reminded himself not to reason with one of Kokichi’s lies, cutting himself off with a sigh. It really didn’t seem like Ouma had changed at all. Captain Kirigiri seemed to share his exasperation.

“Saihara, since you seem to know the suspect, do you believe any of his claims to be credible?”

Shuichi hesitated. He really hadn’t seen Ouma in years… What was he up to? Did he really have the extensive criminal organization he always claimed to? Had DICE grown? Or did Kokichi never quite grow out of pranks?

“U-um. Captain Kirigiri, is it alright if I ask him some questions? I really haven’t seen him in a while… but I do think I still know what to expect.” Shuichi recalled his dusty mental formula for deciphering Kokichi’s constant lying. While he was very inconsistent it was easier to find the truth from deciphering the effect that his lies had and tracing that back to a motive.

Kirigiri frowned slightly. “It’s against protocol since you aren’t an employee of the state. If you get anything out of him it probably won’t be admissible in court.”

“Uh… Well if this is about what I think it might be, it probably won’t come to that…” Shuichi remembered when Kokichi had tried to recruit him to be a part of his evil organization in sophomore year. It had seemed bothersome and possibly malicious at the time, but by the 11th grade it became obvious that there were 10 people at most involved with DICE, and that they mostly just pulled pranks. But then again, what if they had moved beyond that? “... and besides, even if he admits to anything not admissible at least I’ll have gotten a foot in the door.”

Kirigiri gave him a discerning look. Then, she nodded. “Very well. You seem serious about this, and with your background I trust your judgement to this extent.”

“R-right.” Shuichi nodded back.

He heard the door close behind him as he moved to sit in the chair across from Ouma. He paused, noticing something purple stuck to the seat.

“... Kokichi did you put gum on this seat?”

“Wow, you’ve gotten stupider since we last met Mr. Detective. Didn’t you know that in an interrogation there’s always gum on the seats? It’s so that you stick there long enough to get answers out of the baddie! Of course I don’t care for the grape flavored ones at all, really just isn’t classy enough for a big arrest such as yours truly.” 

“...” Shuichi pulled out the seat all the way and sat on the edge of it, carefully so as not to get the gum anywhere near his coat. When he settled down he turned his attention to Kokichi. They just sat there for a second. Kokichi’s face was blank and Shuichi felt like he was searching for something. Shuichi certainly was.

“... Ouma what are you doing here?”

“I don’t know Saihara. What are you doing here?”

“Wondering how you got yourself arrested… though I suppose the how isn’t quite as important as the why with you…”

Kokichi scoffed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms to the best of his ability with the chain of his handcuffs attached to the table. “Well of course  _ you _ would say that Mr. Detective. In this case the how is  _ certainly _ more important than the why!” He slammed his fist on the table, “You analytical types are always taking away credit where credit is due! Credit that is clearly deserved by the genius of a patrol officer that brought me in.” He pointed through the glass to where Shuichi assumed he had memorized the location of the desk chair when he was brought in. “That man right there! He’s a reeeaaal hero you know. At the first sign of trouble he acted! As soon as he heard me say into my phone as I walked past, ‘don’t let anyone know about the bomb yet’ he stopped me to ask me what I was talking about. Of course as a good citizen I couldn’t lie about anyyything to a dumb pig- oops I mean Officer of the law such as him. So I told him the whole truth! Everything about my secret organization and our plans. I was brought in right away!”

Shuichi processed the story. It seemed like a plausible scenario, and no doubt Ouma knew he could always confer with the officer about his story. It seemed like… well…

“Ouma why did you deliberately provoke an officer to arrest you?”

“Uh, because of nunya, duh.” 

Shuichi almost rolled his eyes. “Were your pranks always this bad?”

Ouma gasped, making an overly shocked expression. “How dare you call my Great grandmama, who we call Nunya for short, a joke??? I’ll have your badge for this! Police brutality!” He started to bawl incessantly.

“…”

Yep this was pretty much par for the course.

“I know subject changes are your specialty… but could you at least cooperate for long enough to get you out of here?” Shuichi frowned as Ouma kept sniffling. “Please, Kokichi?”

Kokichi stopped crying as suddenly as he began. He gave Shuichi another one of his blank stares before averting eye contact. “Well I definetly didn’t miss your stupid sad face at alll. I always hated how you were the only person smart enough to see through my lies. And also the only one smart enough to undo all those dumb ‘accidental’ rulings this department kept churning out… and all the cold cases I read about solved anonymously… the arrests made by this department… In the city you live in…”

"You got yourself arrested… to see me?" Shuichi's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Ouma this is about the most convoluted way for you to contact me that I can come up with."

Ouma leaned back in his chair, handcuffed arms moving behind his head. "I know. Didn't you miss me, Shumai?" He grinned, letting out one of his signature snickers.

Shuichi felt his own furrowed brow soften ever so slightly. His heart warmed a little, at that smile. He was still annoyed, of course. Kokichi's stunt could easily have him charged with obstruction of justice, or something far worse. But the sheer stupidity… the absolute Kokichi-ness of this situation brought him back to highschool a bit.

Shuichi got up from the interrogation table. He opened the door to the interrogation room and peaked his head out to see Kirigiri standing with the patrol officer on the other side of the one way mirror. She was grimacing at Kokichi, who was sticking his tongue out as if he could see her beyond the glass, turning to Shuichi without changing her expression.

"Er… Captain Kirigiri it seems there's been a misunderstanding."

Kirigiri sighed heavily, closing her eyes and pinching her brow. "Shuichi you have always been incredibly dutiful and helpful in aiding this department's investigations. For that reason and that reason alone the suspect is free to go as long as you get him out of my sight in the next thirty seconds.”

"R-right away Captain Kirigiri." Shuichi bobbed his head up and down, moving over to the table where Kokichi's confiscated things were. There was a clown-esque mask and a simple black backpack that matched with Kokichi's strange straight jacket uniform with colorful buttons in miscellaneous places serving no function at all. Shuichi shuffled around in the front pocket to fish out some lock picks.  _ So he still keeps them in the same place huh… _ he thought as he went back in the room.

"Come on, we're leaving," Shuichi said, tossing the lockpicks to Kokichi as he shouldered the backpack.

"Wow, Shuichi really knows me so well! It's kind of creepy you know…" Kokichi rambled on as he clicked open the locks on his handcuffs, "You even know where I keep my lock picks! Have you been stalking me or something?"

"Kokichi, it really has been years since we last saw each other but you still keep them in the same place…"

"That's what you think! But did you know that I also keep a set tucked in my sleeves, behind my ears, and betwixt my buttcheeks? Never know where you might need 'em…"

Shuichi couldn't help but laugh at that. "Come on Kokichi let's go." He said, holding the door open for him.

"You know what I didn't miss at all Shumai?" Kokichi said as he walked past, "Your stupid ugly laugh. Ugh it's the worst." He turned on his heel to face Shuichi when he was out the door, "Hey, do it again so I can find more words to describe how awful it is."

Shuichi held back another chuckle with a cough, noticing Kirigiri out of the corner of his eye still pinching her brow in exasperation. "Um. Maybe when we're not within earshot of the police force captain..." he said nudging Ouma away from the interrogation area.

" _ That's _ your boss? But she-"

Shuichi covered Kokichi's mouth with his hand and held it there until they had walked through the rest of the police station and found the exit. The moment they were outside Kokichi made a grotesque hacking noise and spit on Shuichi's hand. As if on autopilot Shuichi wiped his hand off on Kokichi's face.

"Ah so you were prepared for my first trick… but were you prepared for… This?!?" 

Kokichi grabbed Shuichi's collar and pulled him down, wiping the gross part of his face on Shuichi's own. Now Shuichi had been through some shit but this had to be in the top 10 worst feelings ever at the very least.

"Oh my God! Get off of me!" Shuichi pushed Ouma away from him wiping his face with his sleeve.

Kokichi only cackled in response. "It's your own fault you know. I-"

In a flash of red Kokichi was pinned against the wall by the throat. Maki stood in her red cold weather coat holding her doughnut from the Ruruka Ando Confectionary in one hand and choking Kokichi with the other.

"Hey my friend here said get away from him." She said, giving him her signature death glare "Do you want to die?"

"Maki! Don't!" Shuichi grabbed her arm and tried to pull it down, but his arms were noodles compared to hers. Noodles. She felt nothing. She probably couldn't even tell he was pulling with all his strength.

"C-c'mon murder girl. You wouldn't kill me in front of a police station, w-would you?" Kokichi challenged, struggling to breathe yet still meeting her gaze.

"Oh. It's just you." Maki dropped Kokichi, who fell to his knees gasping for air. She turned to Shuichi. "Was he bothering you?"

"N-no," Shuichi let go of her arm and made a placating gesture. "We were just, uh, horsing around."

She gave him a look. "Horsing around? How old are you?"

Shuichi was about to reply when he noticed an officer giving their group a suspicious look from the station's window.

"Old enough to be charged as an adult! Let's take this to the car."

Maki frowned as Shuichi helped Ouma, who was giggling maniacally, get up. "I'm not driving this brat anywhere."

"Who asked you to?" Ouma asked sticking out his tongue at her. "I don't take car rides from murderers."

Shuichi could see Maki counting the numbers the anger management guides had promised would calm her down. Her fist tightened around her doughnut in a death grip. _Thank you for your sacrifice, doughnut._ he thought as he imagined what that fist would do to Kokichi given the chance.

Ouma continued on, ignoring her building rage, "In fact Shuichi doesn't need a ride either. I'm kidnapping him!"

"What." Said Maki.

"What?!" Said Shuichi as Kokichi grabbed his arm and started pulling him in the opposite direction of the car.

"Or maybe a date. However much you want to read into it Shumai. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" 

Maki grabbed Kokichi's arm quick as a whip. "Shuichi isn't going to go anywhere he doesn't want to." She said, threat lacing her word.

"Ow ow ow ow" Shuichi could read the weather forecast of Kokichi's fake expressions and it seemed like tears were coming up with a chance of screeching. They were still in front of a police station!

"H-hey Maki." Shuichi spoke up still processing the situation. She turned her head to listen to him while maintaining her grip on Kokichi's arm. "I think he really just wants to catch up. It's been a while. You can leave us here and we'll go get breakfast or something and you can go to work. I'll be back by the time you're home."

Maki gave both him and Ouma a brief analytical once over before sighing and backing away. "Alright Shuichi. I trust you to take care of yourself. Even if I often disagree with your judge of character."

She turned around and started walking back toward the car.

"See you at home then." Shuichi said, "And don't call Kaito without me!"

"I will if you're late." Maki said without turning back as she walked away.

Shuichi turned back toward Ouma but the other was silently watching Maki's back.

When she finally rounded the corner, Kokichi spoke up. "Wow I can't believe Shumai has sunk this low… dating a murderer like her."

Shuichi sputtered, "What? Who said I was dating Maki? And she's not-"

"Well if you aren't dating her then why do you live together? Just friends with benefits. Wow I didn't even know someone could get so low."

Shuichi couldn't help it any longer. He burst out laughing, "Oh my God, me and- no she would never- I- pfff."

Ouma pouted at him, "Is such debauchery really such a laughing matter Mr. Detective?"

"No- It's just- Sorry." Shuichi wiped a tear from his eye. "It's just that we have a lot of catching up to do." He gave Kokichi a smaller, softer smile. "Do you want to, um, get some coffee?"

Kokichi gave him the blank look that Shuichi knew meant he was recalibrating. Like he was processing what was said or calculating what to say in response. He then bust out one of his hugest grins and said "No!" Before grabbing Shuichi's arm and pulling him towards the coffee shop down the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really grateful to everyone who left comments and kudos! People were just a lot nicer than I was expecting and I was just kind of vibrating with happiness as I edited this chapter.


	3. Catching Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi and Shuichi reminisce about high school, and some old feelings are stirred up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter used to be two pages of a bigger chapter... but then I thought... hmmm... Character development please...

"You know now that I'm an adult, I don't like sugar and cream and all that unhealthy crap." Ouma explained to Shuichi as they stood in line at the coffee shop, "I take my coffee black."

He then proceeded to order a large Chocolate Void, which was a black drink that just happened to be one of the most sugary things on the menu. Shuichi was about to order an espresso out of habit, before he guiltily remembered his promise to Maki. It didn't look like he'd be following through on sleeping the day away. He still needed some caffeine just to not doze off on Kokichi, so he got a small Americano.

"That really is the most boring drink on the menu you know." Kokichi said as he lead Shuichi to the table that was kind of like a bar facing the window. 

As they sat down next to each other Shuichi was hit with a wave of dejavu.

"Hey," he smiled, "this is a little like how we used to sit together in criminal science class."

Kokichi rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, "Wow. Shumai is so sentimental that he's actually brain dead."

Shuichi almost felt a little hurt, but Kokichi got up from his seat to the left of Shuichi and moved to the seat to the right of him.

"_This _ is how we sat together in criminal science."

Shuichi let out another soft laugh. "I guess you're right…" It was weird to remember just how much Kokichi made him laugh back in school. Criminal science was the first class they ever had together outside of homeroom, and Kokichi had constantly been cracking him up, even when the subject matter was serious or important for study.

Kokichi gave him another blank look. "Soo…" he started, taking a sip from his diabetes in a cup, "Is the esteemed detective going to unravel the case of why he's being rented out to Maki Harukawa as a male escort? Does the police department really pay that bad?"

Shuichi almost choked on his Americano. 

"What, what?" Kokichi asked as Shuichi coughed up his watered down caffeine, "I was right on the money wasn't I?"

He shook his head, "Where to begin with how wrong everything you just said was…"

"First of all," Shuichi cleaned up his spilled coffee while he talked, "Maki and I are friends. There is zero interest between us romantically or, um, with regards to 'benefits.' In fact, she'd probably kill me for even mentioning the possibility…"

Kokichi gasped, "Kill her own lover? That's low, even for Miss Murder!"

"Stop it." Shuichi batted at Ouma's shoulder in mock scolding. Ouma hit him back and Saihara giggled again. Before taking another sip of his coffee. "She's actually dating Kaito now."

"Hmm. Never heard of him. But the name is so dumb that I feel like we met in another life and I saw him fall into a toilet bowl in the men's bathroom. Definitely never met anyone by that name important enough to remember in this lifetime though."

"Oh come on Ouma, you remember Kaito. I know you were kind of jealous of him but did you know you actually kind of change his life?"

Ouma gave him a blank look. "I did what now?"

"Well when you sent Kaito's speech to the wrong printer at the end of the year and made him read your edited version of his speech in front of the whole student body, his speech was put into a pile of college essays that got sent to his dream school. He got a scholarship and actually he's in space right now."

Kokichi gave him a blank look. "You know I hate lying Shuichi."

"It's the truth! He'll never admit that what you did helped him out though." Shuichi smiled taking another sip of his coffee. "But you know… I'm not as proud as him so…"

He turned to Kokichi, turning the full force of his smile at him, "Thanks a lot for helping him out, Kokichi."

Kokichi turned away quickly taking another sip of his drink. "I'm telling you I have no idea who that is," he muttered into his straw, "And even if I did there's no way that as the supreme leader of a shadowy organization I would do anything to help someone as dumb as that."

"Hmm, that attitude's definitely why he would never thank you for it."

Kokichi snorted, "Jeez, what an ungrateful worm. I spared his life and the best he can do is send his sidekick to grovel at my feet."

"Who's groveling?"

"You, of course."

"Ah, right. Sorry I didn't notice." Shuichi quipped as he took another sip of his coffee.

"You're so mean Shuichi! I'm going to cry!" Kokichi exclaimed, giving him a huge grin.

Shuichi laughed again. "You're one to talk… you've always had a problem being nice to other people. Especially Maki and Kaito..." He frowned a little at that. "Actually even when we were together-"

"Allegedly."

"Y-yes as alleged by me a person who was in the relationship." Shuichi was still confused as to whether or not Kokichi was serious about not thinking they had been dating, but pushed ahead with his point regardless. "When we were together we kind of had this tacit agreement. Like, when we were hanging out it was just us, you know?"

"Well of course. If we had ever been seen in public together someone would have surely put a hit out on you! To have someone outside of my organization by my side was very dangerous you know."

"I guess Maki and Kaito didn't really like you either, but I kind of understood that more." Shuichi took another absentminded sip. "After all, you were the instigator of almost every relationship you had." He gave Kokichi a bemused look. "And you certainly made a first impression freshman year…"

"It's true." Ouma leaned back in his chair with a faux-honest expression. "While Shumai was busy following that piano girl around like a lap dog, I, Kokichi Ouma, was laying down the foundations of my evil organization, 10,000 men strong."

"Hey… I wasn't that bad freshman year…"

"I literally didn't even know you existed and that's the truth." He reached forward and flicked Shuichi's bangs with his tongue stuck out. "Your hair isn't that great but it's like a gajilllion times better than that dumbass hat you had."

"Hey if we're going to roast my freshman year fashion choices can we talk about that checkered scarf you used to- wait a second! You're still wearing it! Right now!" Shuichi pointed his finger accusingly at Kokichi. He took a second to remember Kokichi was trussed up in an untied straight jacket with mismatched buttons.

"I'll have you know this is Prada, Shuichi. How dare you. I go the extra mile for a brand name and some loser who wore a button up jacket for the entirety of freshman year harasses me for _ my _ fashion choices." By this point Kokichi had taken off the lid of his drink and was slurping the whipped cream that had melted at the top of the drink. "What ever happened to you and button ups? You guys were like, bffs!" 

Shuichi rubbed his neck. He'd never told Kokichi about the last time he'd worn a button up. Sophomore year. He had been investigating a murder. The suspect had grabbed him by the collar. He almost died. It wasn't something he liked to think about. He hadn't worn buttons in a long time.

Seemingly ignorant of Shuichi's internal hesitation Kokichi gave him a smug look, despite the sugar stache he had accumulated. "Of course I already know what happened to your other bff freshman year..."

"Oh my God." Shuichi stuck his face in his hands. 

"You got her suspended!" Kokichi snickered. "What a nice way to repay her for helping you not be a social pariah aaaalll year."

"I didn't want to… " Shuichi murmured. "She asked me to solve the mystery…"

"Yeah, the mystery of who fucking brained Amami with a shotput before the sports festival!"

Shuichi groaned, face still buried in hands. "It was an accident… she didn't want to confess because she knew team morale would go down if the class rep got in trouble that early on…"

"Oh yeah, I toootally agree that the complex morality of valuing team morale over taking responsibility for harming your classmate is an admirable quality." Shuichi couldn't see Kokichi's face, but his tone changed drastically. "You know if you really don't understand why me and Harukawa never got along… then you're stupider than I thought."

Shuichi looked up at Kokichi with a frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're the detective."

"You're the asshole vaguing about one of my best friends."

"I'm just saying that your choices in bffs tend to overlook something that is absolutely critical for me." Kokichi had his blank face on, idley observing the passersby just outside the window. 

"And what's that?"

Kokichi turned his blank expression on Shuichi. "I'm just saying that maybe Akamatsu should have cared more about the value of human life than whether or not our class won the sports festival. Amami was hit pretty bad, he could've been killed. I mean, you act embarrassed about getting her suspended, but isn't that justice? Isn't that what you based your entire career around? The idea that as soon as someone steps over the line of 'I am more important- No, my _ feelings _ are more important than a human life.' you put them behind bars! Isn't that right?"

Shuichi understood full well what Kokichi was hinting at. Maki had a violent past. She had killed people before. She had anger issues at school. She almost choked out Kokichi in the cafeteria freshman year and had threatened to do the same practically just now. He didn't really want to address these things directly though. He decided to argue with Kokichi on the theoretical level he had instigated.

"No, that's wrong." Shuichi said confidently. "I'm not a cop Kokichi. I'm a private eye, and there's a reason for that. A cop's duty is to carry out the law and seek justice. That's not what I investigate. I investigate the truth. And when I find that truth, I lend it not towards a belief in justice, but rather a belief in the future."

Kokichi was still giving him a blank look, so Shuichi kept going. "The thing about the law is that people who break it go to prison. And in some cases I agree with that. Serial killers that kill for the sake of killing and will kill again unprovoked of course need to be stopped somehow. That, however, just isn't the case for most people. For most people, crime happens because of circumstance."

Kokichi frowned. "That's no excuse. Plenty of people in terrible circumstances can go their whole lives without killing anyone! It's, like, really easy to not kill people Shuichi…"

"Right, just because certain people are dangerous in certain circumstances doesn't mean every person in those circumstances is dangerous. That's why there should be countermeasures such as prison. The main function, however, should be to remove people from circumstances in which they are dangerous. Maki may have had a- uh- nasty-"

"The word you're looking for is murderous!"

"-childhood, but when she moved to our school her circumstances changed to the point that now there is very little danger of her murdering anyone at all!"

"Right, because having a boyfriend makes her forget what it means to cast aside human life!" Kokichi smiled, "Wow! All is forgiven. Hey Shuichi do you want to check out the bruise forming on my neck?"

Shuichi looked down at his coffee. Now he remembered why he had never wanted to talk about this with Kokichi before. He was very idealistic. That didn't, however, mean Shuichi was going to give up defending Maki.

"You know… I do think it was wrong of her to attack you so suddenly… but… I think that her actions only prove my point." He looked Kokichi in the face. "Maki cares about things now more than she ever did in highschool. She's let herself care about things. She cares about me and Kaito. She also- did you know she runs an orphanage now? I- I think she really would kill for those kids. She let herself care about things enough to want to protect them at any cost, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's proof that people can change. I mean… haven't you changed since highschool?"

"No not at all! I came out of the womb perfect and fully formed." He looked a way abruptly taking a sip of his drink.

Shuichi put the Americano to his lips and decided to just chug it. The small cup hadn't lasted him very long.

There was another beat of silence. 

"Well…" Kokichi broke the tense silence, murmuring through his straw. "Y'know… hypothetically… a fifteen year old criminal Kingpin going through a vigilante justice phase after reading a lot of mystery based manga may have been a little quick to have his classmate's criminal record played through the loudspeakers during lunch… making her his mortal enemy…" 

"... Would said criminal Kingpin now as an adult ever consider giving a formal apology."

"... Not to her face."

Shuichi sighed. "I guess I can't really blame you. I was pretty scared of Maki too, at first."

Kokichi turned to Shuichi and wrinkled his nose. "Hey when did this conversation become about the blood eyed baroness?"

"... I don't know. I guess it's kind of like… with our modern day hindsight we've been addressing things about our highschool life we never would have had the perspective for when we were teens."

Kokichi pouted. "Well it's lame and we should stop immediately."

"... You're changing the subject because you hadn't thought about this too in depth before and now you think I'm right."

"Wrong! I'm changing the subject because I have an argument so good it would cause you to cut all ties with the Red Reaper, and then you'd be homeless and we couldn't have that. Unless..." He swirled the straw in his half gone drink. "You know, the offer to join my secret organization is always on the table! We even have dental now."

Kokichi grabbed his black backpack from where Shuichi had set it down and pulled out what appeared to be a business card. He offered it to Shuichi, who took it and examined it closely. There was no information on it but some kind of lower case t made out of perfect squares. Shuichi stared at it curiously for a moment, wondering if Kokichi had changed the name of the organization, before Kokichi huffed impatiently. He snatched back the card and Shuichi thought at first he was about to tear it in half. His first tear, however, didn't go all the way through and Kokichi made several more rips before folding up the card and handing it to Shuichi in the form of a perfect cube. On each side was a number printed in the dotted form of playing dice. In the corner of each square there was a single letter. In the order of 1-6 the letters spelt out: KOZEYA. It could be a pseudonym of some sort, but Shuichi suspected otherwise. Wait a second… if K=O… 

"Kokichi Ouma, DICE." Shuichi frowned. "The code seems needlessly elaborate when your business card is literally shaped like a six sided die."

"Wow, you didn't even need a code wheel for that. That's why you're my favorite, Shuichi."

Shuichi's face suddenly buzzed, a mixture of delight and apprehension flooding through him. Kokichi used to say that all the time, but it felt a little odd hearing it now. They had just kind of had an argument after meeting for the first time since graduation, which only hours ago Shuichi had been accepting as the last time he would ever see Ouma. Ouma who, by all means, could be an entirely different person than the one he knew in highschool. It was strange, then, how they were falling into their own patterns so easily when they were really so unfamiliar with each other. It reminded him of how he felt when he first started hanging out with Kokichi. Or maybe more accurately when Kokichi started bugging him on a daily basis. He had been 16, confused, unnerved, completely unsure of himself, and most of all hopelessly, hopelessly intrigued. He hadn't felt this way about anyone in a very long time, and found his heart suddenly very set on unraveling the mystery of Kokichi Ouma. The cold case that had gotten away from him as a teen.

God…These were very embarrassing thoughts to be having. Shuichi looked away from Kokichi completely trying desperately to be less weird. He stared steadfastly out the window until- Gah! No! He just accidentally stared at a stranger waiting at the crosswalk and they turned around and saw him looking! Shuichi looked away but he could suddenly feel eyes all over him. They were surrounded by eyes and walls and eyes and- 

Shuichi shivered and stood up abruptly.

"H-hey Kokichi, can we go somewhere else?" He asked, rubbing his arm self consciously.

Kokichi blinked at him blankly, and from that expression Shuichi intuited he wasn't quite sure what was bugging him. Maybe he would just assume his anxieties were acting up again, which they kind of were, but Shuichi had been a lot worse about this stuff in highschool. Then again did Ouma really remember all that? Kokichi didn't comment as he hopped down from the barstool. 

"Where do you want to go?" He asked, picking up his own drink before handing Shuichi his empty Americano. Shuichi shook his fidgeting hands out and grabbed the cup.

"Anywhere is fine," he said, wanting to make for the door but not wanting to take the first step away from the table.

Ouma nodded silently, face still blank as he grabbed Shuichi's arm and guided him outside.

"Let's go to… the park!" Kokichi decided, dragging a willing Shuichi along.

Away from the close quarters of all those eyes that were, in fact, probably not on him, Shuichi started to relax, falling into step with Kokichi who was still holding his arm. Hesitantly, still unsure of how to go about unraveling this particular case, Shuichi dared to take the first step in feeling things out. He carefully slipped his arm out of Ouma's grip, catching it with his own hand.

Kokichi stopped suddenly, almost tripping Shuichi in the middle of the sidewalk. He looked down at their hands, face carefully blank. Then his face broke out in a grin that made Shuichi's heartbeat a little faster.

"Gross!" He exclaimed, squeezing Shuichi's hand even tighter and running towards the park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did more rewriting than actual editing this time around so sorry about any grammar mistakes haha. Really love getting comments from y'all, even if I'm not really sure what to say in response.  
Edit: Reread this a couple days after and made some grammar and spelling corrections.


	4. Slow Motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi and Kokichi spend the rest of the day together. It's... Nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just got off a plane, made the fic longer again aaah sorry I'm just like that™ sometimes.  
This one gets a little romancey so look out haha.

They spent a couple hours there at the park. They walked around talking until they found a bench. They sat there a while, still holding hands, while Kokichi made fun of passerby and pestered Shuichi about which ones were most suspicious. Then they walked around the pond in the center of the park where a duck bit Shuichi. Kokichi spent the next ten minutes bullying the ducks, despite Shuichi's protests, and the two of them were asked to leave by an angry park security lady.

They ended up getting lunch together at the Hanamura eatery. They talked about some of Shuichi's cases with interjections of ridiculous hypotheticals from Kokichi. It was a nice chat, but Kokichi was extremely rude to the waiter the whole time. 

When the waiter threw down his apron and declared he was quitting after a particularly nasty comment, Shuichi was about ready to end lunch short, but before he could work out exactly what to say, one of the waitresses came up to their table and thanked them. She explained that the waiter Kokichi had been picking on was always harassing female customers and got away with it because he was friends with the owner's son. She offered them free desserts, which Shuichi declined but Ouma accepted. 

Shuichi actually found himself a little embarrassed that he hadn't picked up on the skeeviness of the waiter and he wondered if Kokichi was just more perceptive than him or really just that rude. The way he devoured the complementary cheesecake really didn't help the case in his favor. Shuichi eventually decided to give Kokichi the benefit of the doubt even after he dodged the question several times, and they decided to walk off lunch by wandering around town. They eventually decided to head to Kokichi's place. Well… it was more like Kokichi decided that he wanted to invite Shuichi over and spouted some bs about a secret location and an important quest and Shuichi deduced on his own that they were heading to his house.

They walked for a very long time and as the buildings started getting fancier and fancier Shuichi started to think Kokichi might be pulling his leg about the location of his home. They eventually made it to a very fancy apartment building and when they made it to the elevator Kokichi punched in the button of the suite on the top floor.

"Do you really live here Kokichi?" Shuichi wondered as he watched the floors fly downward through the glass sides of the elevator, the ground getting far away, his head getting dizzy.

"No I don't," Kokichi replied, "I'm actually squatting here with a billionaire's wife. She knows it goes against the prenups but he's just away so often!"

That was definitely a lie. Unlike Shuichi Kokichi was a 100% bonafide homosexual. While Shuichi had had crushes on both boys and girls in their youth, Kokichi had only ever expressed to him genuine interest in men. He recalled one night in junior year they were having a sleepover at Kokichi’s old house. They had been watching a movie, Kokichi spread out on the couch, head draped over Shuichi’s shoulder as he sat on the floor wrapped in a puffy comforter. The lights were off. Shuichi had been looking at Kokichi’s face. He remembered how it curled in disgust as the romantic leads of the film smooched. The light of the TV made every shadow on his face look deeper. The screen reflected in his eyes. Shuichi had thought idley about… Okay that’s another embarrassing memory it was time to turn his brain off. What was he thinking about?

Oh right. The lie. Regardless, it meant Kokichi was dodging the question. In fact he had done the same for almost all of Shuichi's inquiries into the nature of his employment. Shuichi himself had explained the private detective business he had established.

"..but what can you do?" Kokichi had continued with his blatantly false story as Shuichi completely spaced out, "don't be surprised if you don't see her today. She's in court being tried for her crimes against true love. Breaking someone's heart is super illegal you know, the worst kinds of thing to break. Oh! Here we are!"

The elevator pinged and the doors opened on the penthouse suite that presumably belonged to Kokichi Ouma.

"Oh my god… it's huge!" Shuichi exclaimed as he looked around the giant living room. The walls kind of looked like windows painted over with a peachy gradient that went up for like 3 stories, the sunset creeping in through the orangey hues. Fancy crystal chandeliers reflected it, sparkling beautifully. There was a sort of contained mess of papers, cardboard boxes and scattered video games gathered around a small purple couch in the corner of the main room while the rest of it looked clean out of a magazine with a full bar popping out of one wall and a huge TV and big cream colored U shaped sofa in the middle of the room that looks mostly unused.

"I take it you moved in recently?" Shuichi asked, still a little shocked, but distinctly remembering the mess Kokichi's room was when they were in highschool.

"What's that supposed to mean Shumai? Honestly I'm hurt. I've lived here since I was a baby, don't you remember?"

"Seriously how do you have enough cash for this?” Shuichi’s mind was racing everywhere between Kokichi’s claims about billionaire’s wives to winning the lottery to tax evasion to criminal empires. In the meantime Kokichi unbuttoned his horrendous coat jacket and tossed it at a gilded coat rack to reveal the loose white tanktop he had been wearing underneath.

"Figure it out for yourself Mr. Detective" Kokichi started walking over to the big couch. He turned back to Shuichi and stick his tongue out before jumping backwards onto the sofa. He sank about a foot into the plush material and Shuichi was instantly jealous.

He hung up his coat as well before making his way over. He sat a couple inches away from Kokichi's head, instantly sinking into the couch despite his urge to sit up politely in such a big and fancy house. There were a couple staircases leading to rooms on different floors. There were multiple floors on both sides of the apartment... Who needed this much space? He couldn’t tell which one lead to Kokichi’s own room at all… 

“... You used to have a sign on your door. In your parents’ apartment.” He turned his head slightly to look at Kokichi. “What did it say again?”

Kokichi was still lying on his back, arms folded over his stomach. “I dunno,” he muttered, eyes fixed at some point on the far away ceiling, “Something appropriately menacing I would assume.”

Shuichi hummed thoughtfully. “I think you changed it once in a while… I remember at one point it was just that stop sign you grabbed off the street, and then a month later it was some sort of chess pun…”

“When did I have a stop sign? Destruction of government property is illegal, so of course I couldn’t have changed it if it was installed on my door. How stupid do you think I am? ”

“I think you secured it up with this flimsy rainbow tape. You told me it fell on your dad’s foot when he tried to open your door.”

“Aye, struck down in the line of duty. I’ll always remember that brave soldier…”

“... You forgot all about that until just now didn’t you.”

“...”

Shuichi took the silence as an admission. He was still looking at Kokichi’s face. He seemed at ease and tense at the same time. Maybe that was how Shuichi felt too. Or maybe just Shuichi felt that way. He thought about all the quiet moments he had let himself forget. Times he had felt just like this. On Kokichi’s old couch, lit by the TV. Now he was lit by the sunset. On the school roof, leaning over the railing. Now he was leaning into the sofa. On a ferris wheel, looking up at the stars. Now he was looking up at the ceiling and Shuichi was looking at him. Kokichi may be a liar, his words minced with inconsistent truths, but his presence had always been something Shuichi was completely assured of. When he was there, he was there. Even he couldn’t lie about that. It made Shuichi feel… at peace.

That is, it did until Kokichi's eyes met his. Shuichi felt the same kind of dizziness he had felt watching the ground fall away in the elevator. Ugh. Embarrassing thoughts. 

Kokichi squinted at him analytically. Hadn't the ceiling been interesting before? Maybe they could both look at the ceiling now and then Shuichi could collect himself.

But, no. Kokichi flipped over onto his elbows, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Hey Shuichi…" he said with his Cheshire grin. He plopped his head down on Shuichi's thigh. "Do you want to stay the night?"

Shuichi tensed, Kokichi's head on his lap suddenly becoming the only thing he was thinking about. Kokichi was extremely close to some very sensitive areas.

"U-um… I'm sorry what?" Shuichi tried to not be a touch starved mess for five seconds.

"We could, oh I don't know…" Kokichi pulled himself up so that he was sitting side saddle on Shuichi's lap, definitely too close to said sensitive areas. "Have…" Kokichi put his lips next to Shuichi's ear, whispering right into it:

"... Some Kraft Macaroni and cheese."

"..."

"..."

Shuichi burst out laughing. "Oh my God get off of me!" He yelped, pushing Kokichi off of the couch.

He hit the floor with a thud and screeched, "Argh! You pushed me so hard! I could have died Shuichi!"

He stood up, fake tears in his eyes, "Two murder attempts on my person in one day! I expected it from Killer girl but not my beloved Shumai!" 

Shuichi got up, still laughing a bit, and offered Kokichi a hand up, "You were trying to get me flustered on purpose." Shuichi accused him as Kokichi grabbed his hand.

"Well it certainly worked," Kokichi said. He gave him another look before using Shuichi's hand to pull their faces closer together "Didn't it?" He said in the same sultry tone he had used before.

Shuichi, however, had caught on at this point and just gave Kokichi a flat look. "Where's the macaroni Ouma."

Kokichi stuck his tongue out at him "You're no fun now. You used to be so easy!" he said, letting go of Shuichi's hand and getting up on his own. "But you know, I won't reveal the secrets of the family recipe so easily." He huffed indignantly, brushing his pristine white pant legs off.

"You just said it was Kraft brand m-"

"Silence food thief!" Ouma declared, pointing at him authoritatively, "Close your eyes!"

Shuichi chuckled again, "Alright, alright," Shuichi dutifully closed his eyes and turned away from the direction of the big breakfast bar area that he assumed was connected to the kitchen. 

He heard Ouma walk over that way and a door open and closed. He could hear some clattering through the gap in the wall that connected the bar area to the kitchen.

"Do you want me to stand over here the entire time you're cooking?" Shuichi called.

The clattering stopped. A second passed. Then the reply came, "Yes! Absolutely!"

Alright then….

Shuichi managed to last a couple minutes before his cell phone started ringing. He had to peek to check the caller ID. Maki. "Oh shoot," Shuichi muttered answering the phone.

"Shuichi are you alright? You're not back when you said you'd be."

"Yeah I'm fine! Sorry I didn't mean to make you worried."

"Well frankly I wasn't." Maki replied nonchalantly, "I know you can take care of yourself. This idiot on the other hand-"

"How's my sidekick doing?!" The staticky yet unmistakable voice of Kaito Momota blasted through the phone.

"I'm turning your volume down" Maki muttered as Shuichi processed the situation through throbbing ear drums.

"Hi Kaito! I'm doing fine thanks." He hesitated, "I, uh, guess you already know I ran into Kokichi today."

"Yes. He_ knows _ that you and Ouma have a relationship that we do not quite understand and that the fact that you answered my call means that you have _ not _ in fact been kidnapped by our high school bully to be held for ransom and tortured for information."

"I never said that he was!" Kaito exclaimed and Shuichi noticed that Maki had gone through with her promise to lower his volume.

"You heavily implied it." Maki replied.

Shuichi frowned a little, remembering the conversation he had that morning with Kokichi about how the three of them never got along.,"Kokichi Isn't that bad Kaito. I'm… actually really enjoying myself. It's kind of like we picked right back up from where we stopped in highschool, you know? I kind of lost track of the time… We're about to have dinner and then I think I might spend the night actually?"

Silence on the other end.

"Wow Shuichi you move fast," came Maki's assessment.

"What? I- We-"

"Hey are you sure you're feeling alright?" Kaito cut in, "you're not being coerced or threatened right? You're completely safe? Say 'saturn' if you're in danger."

"No! I'm not in danger! Kokichi just has a really nice house and I think he's kind of lonely here? I'm just feeling nostalgic for our old sleep overs and I think maybe he might feel the same."

"Well if you're sure it's not anything untoward-"

"He's sure." Maki interrupted him firmly. This was like medium firmness for Maki, which was still about a thousand times firmer than Shuichi thought his own voice ever sounded about anything.

"Besides I mean now you guys can do coupley things. Like, I don't know watch a romcom together or kiss through the phone."

Silence.

"I'm hanging up on you." Maki said before doing exactly that.

About a minute later his phone buzzed again with a text, but before Shuichi could check it Kokichi yelled from the kitchen "Hey Shuichi! Come see what I made!"

"Can I peek now?" He called back.

"No!" Replied Kokichi, "You must see without looking! It is part of your great test!"

"What great test?" Shuichi asked, turning around and walking with his eyes opened like a normal person.

Kokichi was poking his head out over the breakfast bar and caught Shuichi with his eyes open right away. He put on his pouting expression. "Well you're never going to find out what the test was for because you already failed! Here come look at the failure Mac n cheese I made for losers who couldn't see the cool winner Mac n cheese without peeking."

"Okay?" Shuichi said, amusement in his voice. 

Kokichi slid a metal baking tray on to the bar which didn't make sense until Shuichi got close enough to notice that Kokichi had written the letters URGAY in thick Mac and cheese globs on the tray.

"Wow." Shuichi sat down at the bar in front of the tray. "Are you implying that gay people are losers?"

"No. You may be gay and also a loser but don't let that take away representation from me, a winner cursed with liking dick disease."

Shuichi snorted. "Oh my God Kokichi…"

"Try it, try it, try it!"

"You know technically I'm bi…" Shuichi mumbled grabbing a spoonful of the "U."

He chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed. Cheesy. Also Macaroni-ey, but mostly cheesy.

After a moment's consideration Shuichi murmured, "That tastes better than I remember Kraft being… did you do something to it?"

"Yes, I added the secret family ingredient. But I also poisoned it! So that tale of the wonderful flavor will never leave these walls… the only cure is a kiss from me but good luck with that!"

Shuichi tuned Ouma out, looking behind him. He could see the waste basket had one box of Kraft while there was another on the counter that had been opened, but not tossed. There were two flavor packet wrappers in the trash too. Kokichi followed his gaze. He walked over to the other box and batted it into the wastebasket. Shuichi heard the distinctive rattle of pasta noodles. 

Ignoring his discovery of Ouma's secret recipe, Shuichi instead commented, "you really ought to get a recycling bin for those boxes.

"Ick, why don't I just plot the downfall of an oil executive instead. With my resources it would be both easier and better for the environment."

"It would probably be less beneficial than targeting the economic structure that allows people to benefit financially from the destruction of the planet."

"But definitely more beneficial than recycling. Isn't it past your bedtime Karl Marx?"

Shuichi laughed. Then he looked down, suddenly feeling a little shy. "About that..." He poked at the Mac n cheese with his spoon. "Were you serious about the invitation to stay the night? I was just thinking about all those sleep overs we used to have..." He hesitated again. "Is that what you meant?" He asked tentatively.

"Of course it was, stupid!" Kokichi replied so quickly it made Shuichi feel a little giddy. While he knew not to depend on the tone of Kokichi's voice to communicate his true feelings, the abruptness of his answer seemed to convey hisneagerness. Shuichi had the impression that Kokichi hadn't known he had invited him to sleep over until the second Shuichi asked. "We should watch a movie or something. Sleep on that big dumb couch with no back support and eat pop corn." Kokichi blurted through quick mouthfuls of Maceroni. He looked up at Shuichi excitedly. "Hey! I have Panta!"

Shuichi made a face. "You know I don't really like Panta…" He'd prefer a glass of water any day to the sugary soul rusting sap of grape Panta.

Ouma gave him a flat look. "And here I thought the years might have wisened you up… if you could live so long and never know the true love of Panta in your heart... You're a monster Shuichi! Never speak to me again!"

He stuck a spoonful of Maceroni in his mouth and chewed pointedly, turning away from Shuichi, who decided to do the same, grabbing another mouthful of cheesy pasta. The two of them spent three whole minutes in silence, eating Mac and cheese. 

"..."

"..."

"... Hey Shuichi! We should watch _The Bee Movie_."

"... No."

"Nishihi... Foiled again... I guess we'll just have to pick together from the movies I actually have."

"... That sounds nice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really trying to convey like feelings in this one? I always think it's lame when people are like oh, he fell in love instantly or he had a crush! I feel like those words just don't really encapsulate how things feel. Things can be slow. You can just look at someone's face for hours on end sometimes. Not because they are beautiful, handsome, or sexy, but because they are there. When you can just be together and be happy that one another exists, I think that's what love is.  
TLDR; I'm a sap haha  
Also.... My auto correct kind of went ham on what parts of Mac n cheese to capitalize....


	5. Wash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi and Shuichi chat about some more nonsense while Shuichi makes an effort to not dissociate in the middle of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aah it's been a bit since I've updated. I was kind of off writing some like personal pieces and only just got around to adding in the dialogue and padding this chapter needed haha.

As the two finished up their meal they continued to chat idley. Kokichi asked Shuichi what he would do if he suddenly was the only detective in the whole world. Not the only person with the job title, but like, the only person who could detect period. They went back and forth about what exactly that meant until the conversation eventually became about why corn grows on cobs and why the center of a blackberry doesn't count as a cob.

"Logic shmogic Shumai," Kokichi rebuked Shuichi's impassioned argument against the blackberry cob, "Just because you can take the center out of the berry doesn't make it not a cob. People take corn berries off the cob all the time."

They had about wrapped up dinner, successfully having consumed all five letters of the family sized portion of noodles as well as the two family sized portion of cheese.

"This is a lot like the time you tried to convince me that a choco-taco is a sandwich… " Shuichi muttered, picking up the tray they had been eating off of as well as their spoons.

"Listen! You agree that an Oreo is a sandwich. An icecream sandwich is a sandwich. There are desert sandwiches." Kokichi enunciated clearly as if he were illustrating a very basic concept to an even more basic person. 

"...Yeah I guess," Shuichi said begrudgingly as he opened the door to the kitchen, "but a choco-taco is a taco…"

Kokichi followed in after him. "Yeah. A taco. Buuut did you know that the Google definition for a  _ wrap _ is a style of  _ sandwich _ ? And what is a taco if not a bunch of shit  _ sandwiched _ by a tortilla that wraps around it."

"Just because something is wrapped around something does not make it a sandwich." Shuichi said firmly, bringing the baking tray over to the sink.

"Except it totally does!" When Shuichi set the baking tray down, Kokichi sped up and got in between him and the sink, jabbing his finger into Shuichi's chest. "In fact I would argue that  _ you _ , Shuichi Saihara, are a sandwich."

"... What."

"Think about it!" Kokichi gestured emphatically, adopting such a serious expression that Shuichi was having trouble telling if it was real or feigned. "What are you but a bunch of loose meat sandwiched by your skin?" 

Shuichi was completely flabbergasted by this point of argument. Also by the fact that this was an argument. Kokichi seemed really worked up about sandwiches of all things. It reminded him of another thing about why he had liked him in highschool. He had been used to physical confrontations in his… after school activities. Trying to avoid dangerous situations was a high priority that always put him on edge around those easy to anger. If Kokichi got riled up, however, he had a tendency to either hide it or redirect it, and even if he was really mad it would be hard to physically threaten Shuichi with his stature. The closest he had come to that was that time with the knife in Sophomore year… he ended up stabbing himself and Shuichi had to bandage him up. That was when he said-

"Wow, did my sheer logic break you, Sandw-ichi?"

Shuichi blinked out of his internal train of thought. He had spaced out and had embarrassing thoughts again. He tried to remember what they were talking about. That's right! Sandwiches... 

Shuichi frowned at Kokichi."If I'm a sandwich then by your logic you're also a sandwich, Ouma…."

"No, not me." Kokichi smirked. " _ I'm _ a snack."

"..." 

"..."

Shuichi turned away from Ouma and inspected the sink faucet in hopes of rinsing off the baking tray before putting it in the dish washer. "That completely defeats the purpose of your argument." He muttered. "You're trying to define sandwich scientifically when it's a categorical word with a specific connotation that a choco-taco goes against. Clearly by defining yourself as a 'snack' you have undermined your own argument by acknowledging the importance of word's connotations."

Kokichi tapped Shuichi on the shoulder. When Shuichi turned back to look at him, Kokichi beckoned him to lean forward. After a brief hesitation, Shuichi relented. Kokichi reached forward and held his face in his hands, smooshing Shuichi's cheeks together.

"We are all sandwiches, deep deep down." He said in a low, ominous tone. He was making his creepy face. The one that made his face seem like a sleep deprived skeleton. "Your cells are sandwiches. Wraps of cellulose and interstitial fluid."

Shuichi frowned as best he could between Kokichi's palms. "How can it be a sandwich if it's liquid inside? Isn't that-"

"Liquid! Liquid is merely composed of even smaller sandwiches. Take H2O for example. An Oxygen atom sandwiched by two Hydrogen atoms. Water is a sandwich Shuichi."

"But-"

"It goes deeper Shuichi. So much deeper." Kokichi pulled his face closer making him drop the baking tray back into the sink with a loud clatter. "Atoms are sandwiches of the electron cloud and the nucleus. We are all of us Sandwich, Shuichi."

He mushed around Shuichi's cheeks, still looking into his eyes intensely with his eerie expression. Shuichi gave him a flat look and grabbed his arms, removing them from his face.

"Ouma has DICE really been a weird sandwich cult this whole time?"

In an instant Kokichi's ominous expression shifted into a pout. "Aww maaan. I didn't want you to know about the cult until you joined DICE for real." He whipped his arms out of Shuichi's hands and crossed them over his chest. "DICE is simply a mother organization facilitating world domination. The sandwich is a branch organization. Gosh Shumai you should know all this already."

"Ah, my mistake." Shuichi turned back to the tray he had dropped into the sink. It actually seemed like he had dropped it onto multiple other plates. There was a pile of unwashed dishes at the bottom of the sink. It was… a lot of dishes. Shuichi was surprised he hadn't noticed before. "... Kokichi have you done the dishes since you moved here?"

Kokichi made a face at him. "Why would I lower myself to such a task when I can just embezzle some organization funds to make someone else do it for me." He made a gesture to the bigger living room area. "Just look at this place Shuichi! I'm the one percent now."

While Kokichi gestured in the other direction Shuichi looked at the counter tops. They came up to about the middle of his own torso which was about at Kokichi's shoulder. Shuichi realized that even though he had always felt rather short compared to Kaito he had in fact gained on Kokichi in height considerably. Whereas he used to be just a few inches taller he was practically a head taller than him now. Although Kokichi could easily grab and use things on the counter, the faucet for the sink was set further back. Shuichi noticed the basin was dry.

"... Kokichi can you reach this faucet?"

"Hmmm, I don't know Shuichi." His face morphed into a death glare. "Do you want to leave here alive?"

Shuichi grabbed the tray and rinsed it off, handing it to Kokichi before starting on another plate. Kokichi looked at the tray blankly for a moment before getting the hint and opening the dishwasher he was standing next to.

"Do you remember when you asked me that in Sophomore year and I said I wasn't sure?" Shuichi asked as he handed another plate to Kokichi. "You tricked me into seeing the school counselor the day after that."

"What? That doesn't sound like me at all." Kokichi loaded the plate into the washer without missing a beat. "How could you have time to see a counselor when I made you fight for your life every time we met?"

Shuichi shook his head vaguely as he continued the task of rinsing the dishes. "That was… a weird year for me..." He grabbed a sponge on the counter, using it's rough side to sand off some grime from some of the older plates. Kokichi went about his task silently and Shuichi wondered if that was an invitation for him to continue. He wasn't sure he should, really. His highschool years were full of nasty cases and close calls. He had been desperate to prove himself to his uncle and the freshman year ideals Kaede had imparted before she transfered. As much as he had been compelled to seek the truth he was conflicted over how that truth was used. When he solved a case it felt like  _ his _ fault the culprit went to jail. There were so many cases where he felt like he didn't do the right thing, and other cases where he felt like he should have done more. That somehow the things people had done were his fault. There was one case in particular his sophomore year that he shuddered to think about… 

Shuichi was abruptly shaken from his train of thought when a plate slipped through his hands. He flinched back, closing his eyes and expecting a loud noise coupled with flying ceramic shards. When neither came, he opened his eyes in confusion

"Wooow. Okay butter fingers you're officially retired from dish washer duty."

Shuichi found that Kokichi had in fact caught the plate. He also found that even thought there were still some plates in the sink, the two of them had managed to fill up the washer while he was spacing out. Kokichi shut the washer with the roll and think of the dish racks within, proceeding to press some buttons on the top. Sure enough, the machine started to hum with the sound of automized sanitation.

"Blah, okay. That was booring as hell. Your taste in movies oughta be better than your taste in free time events because if not I'm kicking you out."

Kokichi grabbed Shuichi's arm and pulled him forward out of the kitchen. Shuichi followed easily, still a little out of sorts. He had been remembering pleasant memories all day and was realizing now what a rare occurrence that was. He had a lot of negative highschool experiences that more often than not came back to haunt him. He was not, however, left to ruminate further on said experiences as Kokichi dragged him over to the huge sofa they had been lazing about on when he first arrived. 

"Sit down." Kokichi said authoritatively. Shuichi complied, sinking into the edge of the couch. Kokichi turned around and ran over to the much smaller purple couch in the far corner of the room and Shuichi turned his head to watch him. Kokichi rifled around in some boxes. Shuichi noted idley that the papers he had taken notice of before seemed to have scribblings of calculations and maps on them. There were a couple pinned up on the wall that he couldn't read connected by some string like a conspiracy web. It was very Kokichi, Shuichi decided. Probably a lot more than anything else in this fancy pent house suite.

Kokichi himself seemed to have found what he was looking for, lifting up one of the smaller card board boxes and bringing it over to him. "Here," he said as he plunked it down in Shuichi's lap. It was full of DVDs and Shuichi found himself surprised that anyone still used DVDs. At his own apartment they mostly stuck to Netflix, but Kokichi had a lot of DVDs from all different genres, some of which Shuichi had never even heard of. Kokichi went on to say, "You pick out a movie and I'll go grab some popcorn."

Shuichi looked at the selection. "... Why do you have so many Scooby-Doo movies?"

"Oh, you know," Kokichi flapped his hands dismissively, "Just propaganda for the cult."

"What?"

"You know, my sandwich cult." Kokichi rolled his eyes. "Obviously both pro-sandwich and pro-snack propaganda."

Shuichi laughed, feeling a tension he hadn't yet noticed lift from his shoulders. He leaned back in the couch and looked into the selection. Kokichi had his blank face on, but Shuichi thought maybe he was secretly pleased. As if he had noticed Shuichi's abrupt mood shift. Maybe Shuichi was reading into things though. Yeah that was probably it. Okay.

Most of the movies, although from an array of genres, seemed to be picked based upon their ridiculous descriptions. There was an apocalypse movie about a teenager ending the world and another teenager saving it with a megaphone and a serial killer bff, a romance movie about a nurse and her wife who was secretly a bear that was rated M, and  _ Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery. _

Shuichi dug around until he found a comedy that was shot in a film noir style. He used to watch those all the time with his uncle. Kokichi brought out the popcorn after a few minutes and they set up the DVD player. The movie wasn't really Shuichi's cup of tea but Kokichi's commentary made it a fun watch. They cycled through some more of the B list movies and talked through most of them. They reminisced and went on tangents and talked about some of Shuichi's cases until pretty late into the night. 

They finally settled down when Kokichi fell asleep, snoring in the kind of ugly way Shuichi definitely remembered from highschool. Shuichi himself was having some trouble getting to sleep any time before 3 AM recently, so after turning off the TV he decided to fiddle around on his phone for a bit until he felt too tired to keep his eyes open. It was only then that Shuichi remembered the text that he had received earlier that evening. It was from Maki.

Maki Harukawa 6:34 pm

Hey wait did you say you were out all day? 

Didn't you come home and leave

Like a little before I got back

Shuichi blinked at the screen. 

What?

He checked the time and saw it was 1:32 am and waffled a bit over it before deciding that he should text her back now because that's a weird question.

Me 1:43 am

Sorry I didn't see this earlier but no I didn't come home at all today

Did something happen?

Oh, Maki was typing back. Maybe she was just up late today too, though Shuichi couldn't imagine why.

Maki Harukawa 1:44 am

Yeah, when I got home I thought I heard you go in your bedroom. I assumed you were home so I went to take a shower. I thought I heard you walking around and then leaving through the front door.

Cold claws of dread sunk into the back of Shuichi's mind. Possibilities surged through his head each more anxiety inducing than the last.

Me 1:45 am

No that definitely wasn't me, I've been out with Kokichi all day. 

Do you think someone broke in? 

What would they be doing in our apartment? 

Was anything taken?

Maki Harukawa 1:45 am

Calm down

I don't think anything's missing. I might have imagined someone walking around or maybe misheard the people upstairs or outside or something.

I don't think there's anything to worry about

Shuichi could see Maki typing then stop typing and then start typing again.

Maki Harukawa 1:46 am

Although it will be nice to have you home tomorrow

Me 1:47 am

Yeah of course! 

Shuichi suddenly felt guilty over leaving Maki at home to deal with this, even if he couldn't have anticipated it would happen. She was used to being very self reliant, but over the years Kaito and Shuichi had tried their best to let her know she didn't have to handle her problems alone. Now, Shuichi felt like he was saddling their shared problem squarely on her shoulders

Me 1:48 am 

Agh sorry I'm over here having this nice night at Ouma's while you're up late worrying about our apartment. 

I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner!

Maki Harukawa 1:48 am

It's really alright

I definitely would not want to switch places

Shuichi snorted out loud at that and only noticed that Kokichi had stopped snoring when the other shifted and glared up at him with bleary eyes.

"Who're you texting at this hour… " he mumbled, swatting at the light of Shuichi's phone until he set it aside.

"Just Maki," he replied, "it sounds like someone broke into our house."

Kokichi sat up straight, "What? Someone broke in? Did she see who it was?"

"Uh, no. She said she thought she heard me come in at first, but it might have been her imagination." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kokichi. "You don't happen to know something about this… do you?"

"Well of course I sent one or the top secret members of my organization to investigate what you were telling me about yourself was true! I hate liars you know."

That didn't really add up and Shuichi was about to say so when Kokichi's arms suddenly wrapped around his middle. "It's too late to think about shit like that, go to sleep already." Kokichi muttered while pressing his face into Shuichi's side and wow! Shuichi was being hugged! It had been a very long time since anyone had hugged him like this and it just felt very very good. Arms… Hmhggh… 

After that Shuichi's thought process got a little hazy before he finally drifted off to sleep with Ouma curled around his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of things in this chapter, sandwiches, Scooby-Doo. I thought I'd give Kokichi my own radical sandwich ideology, but I think he's just arguing for the heck of it whereas I whole-heartedly believe that anything can be called a sandwich because the english language is broken and everything in the physical realm is relative. The original description I had for this fic had like a lot of Scooby-Doo references in it because I feel like Shuichi was kind of like the Velma to Kaito and Maki's Fred and Daphne in regards to the idea that they were kind of like a mystery solving gang. The analogy doesn't work perfectly though because Kaito has Daphne's fashion sense and Maki has her pure unadulterated muscle but they're like both as dumb as Fred about some things smh. Also like I don't know what that makes Kokichi in this analogy. Maybe he's Scrappy-Doo. Anyway you don't need to know anything about Scooby-Doo to read this fic so I changed the description.  
Oh also like maybe someone broke into Shuichi's house but he can't think about that too long because he's a gay, touch starved nerd tbh.


	6. The Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He forgot it was ticking.  
Did you?

When Shuichi woke up Ouma was gone and he wondered for a moment if yesterday had been some weird lucid dream.

At least, he did until he realized he was trapped in a couch with cushions that sank in almost an entire foot.

As he scrambled to get out of the couch so deep someone could be buried alive in it he smelled the distinct almost burning smell of pancakes. Shuichi could see a box of Bisquick on the counter of the breakfast bar and the back of Kokichi's head, which had always looked to Shuichi like some purple bird trying to spread its wings, like it was going to take off from his head but in the wrong direction. Wait had he always thought that or was this just his morning brain without coffee?

When Shuichi entered the kitchen Ouma acknowledged his presence by exclaiming "Hey! Shumai! Watch this!" Saihara moved to look over Kokichi's shoulder. At first it looked like Kokichi was just pouring the batter into two mini pancakes, but then he drew a strip in between them and what he was drawing became instantly clear.

"Ah." Said Shuichi astutely, "Liking dick disease."

Kokichi spluttered so hard he almost dropped the pancake bowl. He managed to secure it, but not without casualties. The pancake "art" he had made was distorted into a blobby mess.

"Your second attempt on my life in 24 hours! The years have changed you my beloved Shumai!"

"The Prognosis is grim, Mr. Ouma. Contact your loved ones before it's too late."

"Alas fair doctor, t'is already too late" Kokichi proclaimed dramatically, gesturing with the spatula, "For I have been betrayed by my true love… some asshole named after sushi… and now I shall perish a lonely soul."

He pointed the spatula at Shuichi's throat, "Unless I kill you first."

"Your dick cake is burning" Shuichi observed.

"Fuck!" Kokichi screeched, making haste to flip the burning cake.

Shuichi laughed. "I'm not eating that."

"Who said you could? Maybe all these pancakes are for me."

"... You've separated them onto two plates."

"I eat with both hands so of course i need two plates."

After another moment the dick pancake was ready and Kokichi flipped it onto one of the plates. He handed the other to Shuichi.

"Well... I gueeeess you can hold this while I grab the maple syrup."

Shuichi laughed once more, acceptint the offering of mostly not burned pancakes.

Breakfast was nice. A lot of things about yesterday and this morning were just nice. Their conversations just flowed together and fit together nicely and Shuichi knew where all the right steps were after spending so much time with Kokichi all those years ago. It really did feel like picking up right where they left off. Except they had been kind of pointedly ignoring where they left off. Shuichi had no idea how Kokichi felt about what happened after graduation and frankly he didn't want to bring it up. He knew he had promised himself all those years ago to give up avoiding the truth, but maybe the truth of the matter really was that what happened after graduation was nothing and it's just nice to hang out with Kokichi again and that's all there is to it.

"So you told me about some of your newer cases." Kokichi started off as he absolutely drowned his pancakes in Maple syrup. "But I'm starting to get bored of them. Tell me about your old cases again."

"My old cases? Like, how old?" Shuichi, who prescribed to the more respectable method of pouring a small puddle of syrup on the side to dunk his mouthfuls into, asked.

"Like… your first case!"

Shuichi frowned at him. "Uh, I found my neighbor's dog when I was five or six."

"Hey that's not adorable or funny at all, missing pets are a serious problem, how dare you make light of the issue by making me imagine your baby face getting excited about a mystery!" He shook his head. "Absolutely despicable. I don't want to hear about that one. What about your first _big_ case."

"I, uh. Do you mean the first murder case I did? The one when I was 13?" Shuichi shuddered. "You know I don't like to talk about that one. And besides, I already told you about it."

"Hmm. You're right. What about the second biggest case. Say maybe one that happened while we were at school."

Shuichi frowned. "You know my Uncle had me solving cold cases for him all freshman year. I solved a lot of murders."

"Well is there maybe one so top secret that maybe I wouldn't have been allowed to know about it back then but now it's totally fine?"

Shuichi narrowed his eyes at Kokichi. "It sounds like you know the exact case you mean."

"Hm no not really, just curious."

Shuichi looked at the time. They had slept in fairly late and by now it was around eleven in the morning.

"I should probably go home soon."

Kokichi gave him that processing stare again before tearing up, "Well I guess Shumai just doesn't like my amazing sense of humor or my extremely cool house. He'd rather be alone all day in his apartment than reconnecting with old friends.

"That's not why I have to go Kokichi." Shuichi gestured to himself, "I've been wearing the same sweater and jeans for more than twenty four hours. I'm starting to feel a little gross."

"It's a good sweater!" Kokichi exclaimed, leaning over from the breakfast bar stool beside his to wrap his arms around him again "Very cozy!" Kokichi murmured, snuggling up and! Oh boy! That feels nice! Jeezy creezy that is a good hug feel! "And I promise you don't smell at all like stinky garbage!" And oh boy it was hard to process if that was an insult or not because being hugged is very nice!!!

Shuichi shook himself out of his stupor and untangled himself from Kokichi.

"This was- um- I- I should still go home and take a shower."

"You could take a shower here! I've got reeaaally good towels he said, reaching over to the sink and grabbing one of said towels to lob at Shuichi. It seemed like it was a hand towel and it was very soft and again Shuichi wondered how Kokichi could afford all this. 

"No, I know you don't have any jeans in my size… is their some reason you don't want me to go home?"

"Can't I just want to spend time with you?"

"... The idea that you would openly admit it just makes me more suspicious… "

"Ugh! You're the worst! Ok fine I'll prove it. Here I'll drive you home."

"You have a car?"

"Yeah, how did you think I got to the police station?"

"In a cruiser, you were arrested."

"Exactly! Which is why my car is here at home."

Kokichi went over to a bear shaped cookie jar that didn't match the decor of the kitchen at all and grabbed some keys out of it.

"Actually since I'm being so generous and driving for you maybe you should let me change and shower first."

"Kokichi… your hair was wet before breakfast and you weren't wearing that shirt yesterday."

Whereas yesterday Kokichi had been wearing the white shirt that had been under his weird straight jacket outfit, he was now wearing a black Pokemon t shirt that said "gotta catchem all" and some purple skinny jeans.

"Caught in my web of lies yet again. You truly are a master detective."

"Show me your clown car Kokichi."

Kokichi's "clown car" was a very futuristic looking black sports car that boggled Shuichi's mind.

"Do you really make this much money?" He asked, getting in the passenger seat.

"Oh yes." Ouma said, buckling up his seatbelt. Even as an adult Ouma was a man of short stature. The huge cushiony big boss driver's seat completely dwarfed him. "I'm one of those awful fortune 500 CEOs. I'm Batman if Batman was just Bruce Wayne's alter ego for talking to poor losers like you Shumai."

"How often do you get pulled over for underage driving."

Ouma put on his pouting face as he started the engine. "Oh aaallll the time. It's the worst. All those cops with X-ray vision and a grudge" he said, gesturing to the windows that Shuichi now noticed were one way as Kokichi started pulling out of his reserved parking spot. "The absolute worst."

As they drove out of the parking complex Shuichi felt that sense of dejavu once more.

"This reminds me of prom."

Ouma hummed, eyes focused on the road. "Yeah. Just me and my wall flower from Papua New Guinea after I was forced to Chauffeur when he was deemed too unamerican to drive on the right side of the road. I wonder what ever happened to that young man from far away… "

Shuichi laughed, "Did you really think we weren't dating that whole time?"

"What? No. It's just that I thought I was dating much harder than you. I was surprised you thought we were dating was all with how little you were trying."

"Hmmm bullshit."

"Oh no Shumai I think the wheel is slipping towards the right, I'm going to run you right into that stop sign! Watch out!" Ouma screeched as he came to a full stop and looked 45 degrees in both directions of the intersection.

"... What you did to Miu was really awful though…."

"Hmm? Miu? Whose that? I don't take time to remember bitch slut whores who try to out prank the master at the biggest party of the year and couldn't even be bothered to think of something creative."

"But having Gonta drop a bucket of toilet paper and eggs on her was just awful. She had such a nice dress on and the slip and slide was excessive. I very nearly went home early because I didn't want to be seen standing next to you after that."

"Well you didn't so now you're stuck with me forever so there, nyanyanya booboo."

"The only reason I stayed is because she wanted to do something equally terrible to you and you convinced me I was the only one who could figure out what the plot was when you had already heard about it from eavesdropping… "

"Hmm this conversation is boring now. Say Shuichi would you eat a man for a million dollars? And I don't mean _eat_ I mean eat."

Shuichi made a face. "No, gross."

Kokichi kept fiddling with the hypothetical, adding things like, 'what if he wanted it and all his bodily fluids tasted like your favorite soda?' until they arrived at Shuichi's apartment complex.

Shuichi got ready to be dropped off, but Kokichi parked on the side of the road instead of just stopping and got out of the car with him.

"You really don't need to escort me all the way Kokichi. I can just give you my number and-"

Kokichi shook his head resolutely. "No. I need to help you carry your things."

Shuichi blinked at him in confusion. Everything he had with him was in his coat's pockets. "What things?"

"Well I'll start with this." Kokichi replied, wrapping his arms around Shuichi again.

"Okay!" Wow that's nice. Okay. Did he say that out loud gah get ahold of yourself it's just a hug, a really really nice hug.

"Onward!" Proclaimed Kokichi leaning forward and prompting Shuichi's legs to do the same.

"A-alright, h-hold your horses Kokichi."

They managed to get to Shuichi and Maki's apartment after only tripping a couple times.

The interior was smaller than Kokichi's house but more well furnished. At least, Shuichi thought so. The entrance lead into the living room, kitchen, and dining room area. The living room to the right had walls that were decorated with newspaper clippings about some of Kaito's missions and Shuichi's investigations. Maki had one clipping on the wall, but Kaito had gotten it framed for her. It was an article about how she had bought the orphanage she had grown up in. She went in most days to check on the kids and make sure the caregivers were doing their jobs unlike previous wealthy benefactors. The orphanage was where most of Kaito's astronaut salary went, which is why they'd had the same apartment for quite a few years now. They had a rather stiff green couch by the window overlooking the street with a TV set across from it. The positioning of the couch allowed one to move the drapes to adjust the lighting, which was nice to have on lazy days. There was a shag carpet and a lamp also within reach of the couch. Shuichi was less familiar with the kitchen to the left, which had an ever shifting scenery. Maki was always experimenting with meal plans for the kids at the orphanage so Shuichi didn't really want to mess her space up by moving her stuff around. All he really had to do was warm up leftovers, boil water, and order take out when Maki was too tired for shit. They had a little dining table between the kitchen and the living room with three very different chairs at it.

"I want this one!" Ouma yelled jumping up and settling into the biggest chair, purple, cushy, and as Kaito would describe it "shaped like a baseball glove" although Shuichi didn't quite see the resemblance. 

"O-oh. Are you staying?"

"Yep!" Ouma chirped cheerfully. "Weren't you worried about a burglar breaking in here? I'll lock the door, you go take a shower or whatever."

Shuichi had the feeling that Ouma was still hiding something but hesitated on calling him out for it. He _was_ nervous about the break in after all and as much as he doubted Ouma would help out in a fight against a burglar, it was nice to have someone else here until Maki got back from work.

So instead Shuichi gave one of his little smiles to his unexpected house guest. "Alright Kokichi, I appreciate it. Make yourself at home." Shuichi turned the lock on the door handle and walked over to his room, which had its own bathroom in it. While he was getting ready to shower he heard the distinctive sound of Kokichi sliding the deadbolt at the front door closed. Shuichi sighed. He'd have to undo that after his shower so that Maki could get in with her key later. Just what was Kokichi so on edge about?

After his shower, Shuichi felt a lot better. Since he was home and didn't plan on going anywhere he had some sweats and an old encyclopedia brown shirt. Shuichi's newfound feeling of comfort disappeared the second he opened the door to see Kokichi taping the curtains closed.

Kokichi turned around, took one look at his shirt muttered "nerd" and turned back around to what he was doing.

"Wha-what are you doing?" He turned and noticed the door to Maki's room was open and the window in it taped up as well.

"Your a detective, figure it out." Ouma muttered, tearing off another piece of tape from Kaito's strange solar system tape dispenser.

"I mean, I am concerned about the burglar, but doesn't this seem excessive?"

"You said to make myself at home. Maybe home to me is taping all the windows shut."

"I did say that. Oh… Maki is going to be so mad."

He suddenly heard the front door handle clicking as someone from the other side was trying to turn a key in it.

"Oh gosh that must be her right now."

"Shuichi wait-"

Shuichi unbolted the door and opened it wide. But it wasn't Maki on the other side. In fact, by all defining characteristics, this man was a complete stranger. He had short, choppy black hair. He wore a white button up and blue jeans. His face was unmarred and unobscured. But his eyes said everything. Shuichi knew those eyes anywhere, because those were the eyes that haunted his worst, darkest nightmares. The ones filled with blood guts and gore. Filled with those eyes.

The eyes of Koreikiyo Shinguji.

The culprit of the worst murder case Shuichi Saihara had ever solved.

The last thing Shuichi heard before he passed out was Kokichi's loud exclaimation of "Fuck!"

Then he was on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha surpriiise.


	7. Rewind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi relives some more high school memories. The bad ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I chose not to use archive warnings to avoid spoilers, but scroll down to the bottom if you might need some because this chapter's a doozy!

Sophomore year.

Shuichi had been desperate to prove himself to his uncle his whole freshman year. He spent his free time looking into cold cases his uncle’s department didn’t have the funding to investigate like reading accidental death reports everyday was more important to him than breathing. Every time he came up with a theory, he’d quibble over the details for days before nervously presenting it to his uncle. Sometimes, his uncle would put Shuichi’s work on a pile and promise to get to it. Other times he would take a moment to read his work and discuss the case with him. Sometimes it seemed that Shuichi lived for these moments. As an adult, he might reflect back and realize that on some level he was afraid if he didn't prove himself his uncle would have no more use for him and just send him away. By sophomore year his efforts had waned, and yet the anxieties remained. It was a strange time for him and the goings on of school life outside of his own small friend group didn't really interest him. 

Then, something happened. 

Something awful, but not altogether unusual to Shuichi Saihara. 

A girl in their year was murdered. Asphyxiation. Strangled to death. The murder weapon was a chord of rope the color of blood.

In the early stages of the investigation the murder was covered as a suicide. Two weeks later, another girl dead. The body was found 8 AM on a Thursday by Shuichi’s sophomore gym class. Bound in red rope and stabbed to death. Dried blood on the gymnasium floor.

_So it happened the night before, not recently._ Shuichi had thought.

What a gruesome thing to think while his classmates wretched in horror. Not even Ouma had made a crack about it in homeroom, when the teacher told them that if they needed to they could get counseling or go home early after what they saw. But how could Shuichi go home when school had become a vital trial ground for the only thing he was ever good at?

Kaito had gone home early after seeing the body and immediately throwing up, so it was just Shuichi and Maki sitting at the lunch table in sullen silence. Well sort of. Shuichi made use of the time to eavesdrop on the other students. Some of them said that the girl had been waiting in the gym to confess her love to another student, and that perhaps he was the murderer. There was, of course tons, of speculation about the murderer, but this one stood out to him because of the idea that it could conceivably be one of the students. That someone could do this to a fellow classmate.

Ouma seemed to have suspected this all along, loudly proclaiming that he believed Maki to be the killer the day afterward. They got into an altercation that brought them to the principal’s office and even if Maki was not trustworthy to Shuichi at that point it was clear she had not turned to murdering their classmates, considering Ouma remained remarkably alive.

After some digging, Shuichi found out about the first case and connected them by the red rope, even if it was only used as a murder weapon in one of the cases. By researching the brand of rope for its uses and purposes as well as by fielding schoolhouse gossip, Shuichi built a very circumstantial case against his own home room classmate Korekiyo Shinguji.

But even Shuichi himself wasn't convinced with just that. It was hard to just so easily believe one of his classmates would commit murder. Sure, Korekiyo dressed a little oddly and was into weird stuff, but what about that one time him and Kaede gushed about the Baroque period to each other? Or when he’d been in their group project in history and did half the research? He couldn’t mistrust a classmate that easily. So Shuichi concocted a scheme.

He decided to ask Kiyo to meet him in a secluded supply closet after school. According to rumor, both murdered girls had asked him to meet them to hear their confessions. Beforehand he would set up his phone to record audio and call Kaito at the same time. Kaito and Maki would hide in another classroom listening to the call and intervene before Shuichi got murdered. The "Shuichi might get murdered" part of the plan had initially caused an argument among them, but Maki eventually came to the conclusion that Shuichi knew what he was doing and Kaito came to the conclusion that even if he didn't know what he was doing Kaito could bail his sidekick out of any mess he got himself into. Shuichi was very grateful for their support.

Kaito helped him write a very gushy love letter and Maki helped him edit it into something that actually sounded like him. Shuichi wasn’t quite sure what to do if Korekiyo didn’t want to murder him and was in fact just his classmate who dressed oddly and was really into anthroplology. Would he reject his feelings nicely or cruelly? Or worse yet, would he accept Shuichi’s feelings and Shuichi would be the one to have to tell him, “Actually I just thought you were a murderer.”

“Hey Korekiyo, I’ve never loved you, you’re just very creepy! Sorry for the confusion.”

Yeah that sounded great.

These scenarios comprised the cold anxieties that wormed through Shuichi’s head the entire morning after he had slipped the letter into Korekiyo’s locker. His worries were replaced with confusion when Kiyo pulled him over to the wall after their third period, the only class Shuichi shared with him other than homeroom.

“I received your letter.” He started off slowly.

“Y-yeah?” Shuichi stuttered, looking away from his intense gaze. He hoped that he looked appropriately “love confession” bashful and not “about to die” terrified.

“Yes. The first thing I must tell you is that I can never reciprocate your feelings. My heart belongs to another.”

Shuichi felt a mix of dread and relief bubble up inside him, “I-is that so?” he asked, deflating a little. It looked like he was wrong after all. His classmate was not a murderer, Shuichi was just very stupid and suspicious of all the wrong people. Maybe he should turn his investigation to-

“However,” Korekiyo continued on as if Shuichi hadn’t spoken, “I must admit, your feelings do spark interest in me as a devout student of human nature. Perhaps we could still meet in the location you specified, at the same time, to discuss this further.”

Shuichi’s mind went blank for a moment. Hm wow okay hm okay wait a second Shuichi was totally getting murdered tonight. “Y-yeah, sure thing.” Shuichi said, looking down at his feet even harder now. 

Korekiyo chuckled in a way that Shuichi found rather dark and leaned down to whisper in his ear, “See you tonight.” Then he walked away, gliding like some sort of phantom.

Shuichi was sufficiently spooked as he turned around, waiting for Korekiyo to disappear from view before shuffling after him into the lunch hall.

After making sure Korekiyo sat down very far away from his and his friend’s lunch table, Shuichi filled Kaito and Maki in on what had happened in the hallway. Usually he would have to worry about Ouma eavesdropping on them, which certainly would have thrown a wrench in their plans. The wrench being Ouma. The ultimate wrench in all plans. Sophomore year was when Kokichi had decided that Shuichi was his favorite victim. He kept bugging Shuichi to join his “secret organization” that probably didn’t exist, and why he wanted Shuichi to join if it did was beyond him. Today, however, Ouma was home sick. Or skipping. Who could tell with him? 

Shuichi had actually intended to put his plan in action tomorrow or the day after that so that he had more time to emotionally prepare himself for how brazen it was, but Ouma’s absence forced his hand. Any other day, Ouma might have got in the way of the plan or maybe convince Shuichi not to go through with it. To be fair, Kaito also made that attempt several times over the course of lunch, but his protests to Korekiyo’s creepiness only served to harden Shuichi’s resolve. He shut down all discussion of the matter by bringing up the girls who had already died and Kaito had to go throw up again. Maki offered to just kill Korekiyo for him but Shuichi pointed out that they needed Shuichi’s scheme to get any evidence that Korekiyo was definitely the murderer that wasn’t circumstantial. Also, murder is bad. That was kind of the whole point of this. Yeah. The point.

Shuichi spaced out hard in his fourth period criminal science class and was extra grateful that Kokichi wasn’t here to call him on it today. His brain was kind of in the wash for the whole day, worrying about what the after school hours would bring. The school was almost completely abandoned by 5 pm, when Shuichi made his way to the supply closet. Kaito and Maki split off from him, going into the art classroom that Angie Yonaga always forgot to lock after her Club was done at 4:30. When he got to the closet, Shuichi’s heart raced as he carefully peeked inside. It was a great relief to him that Korekiyo didn’t decide to come an hour early or anything. By the time Kaito and Maki got situated and Shuichi set up his phone call with them so that they could hear him but he couldn't hear them or see the phone, it was 5:45. Shuichi turned on the recorder better safe than sorry and hid the phone. He waited in the quiet, dark closet for fifteen minutes. Well Maki and Kaito told him afterward it was just fifteen minutes, but to Shuichi in the moment, it felt like an eternity. Just when he had convinced himself that this was a prank and Korekiyo wasn’t a murderer and Shuichi was an idiot, the supply closet door opened.

Shuichi stood up as Korekiyo closed the door. The two of them looked at each other in silence for a moment. Okay okay okay. No panicking. All Shuichi needed to do was go along with Korekiyo until he got something incriminating, then Maki and Kaito would come back him up.

Korekiyo broke the silence.

“... Shuichi. So you’ve beckoned me here because you finally understand, yes?”

Shuichi blinked at him in confusion. “Huh?” Did Korekiyo know Shuichi suspected him? Was he going to confess?

Korekiyo frowned at him. “Oh? Was all the interest you showed in me merely a lie?” He shook his head, fixing Shuichi with his cold stare, “Well whether it is true or false is irrelevant to me. The passion you showed me… I fell victim to its beauty. So as you wish, I will accompany you, but for only a single night.” He tilted his head coyly, eyes never moving from Shuichi’s own. “But as I said before, there will never be a time where I love you. You’re alright with that, yes?”

“Ah, um, wait a minute,” Shuichi said, head spinning a bit. It seemed like this was turning out to be a different kind of encounter than he had anticipated and he really was not prepared for it at all. Why couldn’t Korekiyo just murder him?

“Hm?” Korekiyo replied, “If you’re suddenly apprehensive you can always run away.”

“Ah, no,” Shuichi had gone too far into this investigation already. And if Korekiyo really was the murderer… 

“I’m not planning on running away…”

“Oh, it is quite alright. I wouldn’t blame you. Rather, it is I who would be at fault.” Korekiyo turned around and began to shuffle with some boxes. Shuichi had to make a conscious effort not to back away from him as he went on, “After all, I’m only responding to your feelings out of a simple curiosity.”

Shuichi narrowed his eyes in the darkness at the back of Korekiyo’s head as he continued searching for something. “What do you mean?” He asked.

Korekiyo let out one of his dark chuckles that resounded ominously in Shuichi’s bones. Like a death toll. “... it may seem frightening at first…” Said Korekiyo in a low tone, “But I will tell you this… You will enjoy it.”

“Wh-what? What are you planning Kiyo…?”

“Don’t worry. It’s only frightening at first.”

Shuichi watched with mounting horror as Kiyo pulled out from one of the boxes a thick chord of blood red rope.

“What is that for?” Shuichi asked in a daze. He already knew what it was for. Images of the murdered girls bound in rope flashed through his mind. Oh fuck fuck fuck. Okay, that’s enough. That’s it. Shuichi cracked the case. The murderer is Korekiyo! Congratulations. Shuichi started to slide around Korekiyo and make for the door.

As he reached for the door knob Shuichi felt a slender, iron grip wrap around his extended hand.

“Ah!” He yelped as Korkekiyo pushed him to the ground.

He let out another dark chuckle. “Where are you going? You’re in my control. Just surrender to your fate… “

“W-wait a second…” Shuichi hesitated, knowing how feeble his voice sounded. He spoke up a little louder, Hoping that his phone could still pick up all of this. “You said I could run if I wanted, right?”

Korekiyo laughed. How could he laugh at a time like this? God Shuichi was so dead.

“I did indeed say that. But I never said I wouldn’t stop you…” 

“W-what?” Shuichi said. _Like you stopped those two girls?_ He thought.

Korekiyo’s full weight was bearing down on Shuichi as he began to wrap the red rope around his arms. Shuichi struggled to get up, but that only allowed Korekiyo to more easily secure his arms to his sides. Shuichi recognized the type of knots from the case file of the second murder.

“In any event, let’s revisit the topic of your interest in me.” Korekiyo went on as if they were having a casual discussion. “As I said, all aspects of humanity, even the ugliest, are beautiful. You took an interest in me. What sort of beauty will you show me as I toy with you? That is what I wish to know.”

This was so weird. Agh. Was this enough for a murder conviction or was it just generally creepy? Shuichi needed a confession.

“Kiyo… what are you going to do with me? Perhaps, if you explained to me, I…”

His laugh again, oh god that laugh was going to haunt Shuichi for the rest of his life. “...you needn’t understand all at once. I will teach you… thoroughly.”

Nope nope nope nope nope. He wanted to say “Nevermind, you don’t have to explain!” But maybe he should really just come out with it now and get out of this situation as soon as possible.

“... Like you taught that girl that was found in our gym class.” He spat out, still struggling. Korekiyo froze and Shuichi made the split second decision to press even further. “Or the girl who was found strangled to death in the park…”

Silence. Then Shuichi felt the ropes tighten with a decisive knot. “Interesting.” Came Korekiyo’s voice, now cold instead of casual. “To think that your passion all along was for the truth rather than carnal desire. Truly fascinating, Shuichi Saihara.”

“But none of that matters now.” Korekiyo continued, seemingly satisfied with how thoroughly trussed Shuichi was as he loomed over him. Shuichi found that whereas he had been struggling before, he now couldn’t move at all, as much as he squirmed. “All that matters is that you show me _all_ your beauty in your final moments.”

And suddenly Kiyo’s hands were everywhere, stroking his sides, prodding at his neck, pulling down his shirt.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

“Somebody-!” Shuichi began to yell but Kiyo covered his mouth with his gloved hand.

“Shh shh shh,” He chided, forcing Shuichi’s chin up with the hand covering his mouth. With the other hand he took two fingers and gently grazed the spot of Shuichi’s neck where his pulse was beating loud and hard, “I’d hate to have to end our fun so-”

The door to the supply closet burst open and Kiyo barely had enough time to sit up and gawk before Kaito punched him in the jaw.

“What the-” Korekiyo started to say, stumbling off of Shuichi as a red flash came through the doorway. Korekiyo was suddenly against the shelf, Maki’s hands encircling his throat.

Kaito leaned over and helped Shuichi sit up, starting to untie the knots that encased him. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, man!” Kaito muttered, voicing the thoughts Shuichi had been holding in, “That was way too close for comfort. Are you good?”

As soon as his first hand was free it shot up to button back up his shirt. “It’s- I’m- I-” He shook his head, “C-can someone call the police?”

“Already did.” Came Maki’s flat voice. Korekiyo was making some choking noises beneath her iron deathgrip. “Called them when he said ‘surrender.’” Her grip tightened and Kiyo convulsed, “That’s sexual assault, scumbag.”

“W-wait!” Shuichi exclaimed, getting up and shaking off the rest of the ropes with Kaito’s help. “Don’t kill him!”

“Why shouldn’t I.”

“Um. Because murder is wrong?” 

Maki looked unconvinced at that and Shuichi could physically feel how weak his words sounded, but Kaito came up and put a hand on her shoulder. “And you aren’t a murderer Makiroll.”

The death glare melted into a pout as Korekiyo passed out and Maki dropped him to the floor.

“Yeah, fine whatever. Idiot.”

What a bizarre scene. It was hard to believe Shuichi almost got murdered… except he totally just almost got murdered.

Shuichi suddenly found that he had to stay very focused on breathing normally.

He sat back down. Then he got back up. "Um. Okay. Wow. We should, uh, go outside and wait for the police."

Shuichi grabbed his phone from the corner of the room and stopped the recording and phone call. His phone was almost out of batteries. Geez, kind of lucked out that he got the whole conversation on tape. And… wow it was only 6:11… all of that had happened in the course of about ten minutes… 

Ten minutes.

Huh.

The four of them formed a grim procession. Korekiyo was slung over Maki's shoulder at the head of the group. Shuichi was lagging behind, wearing Kaito's jacket on his shoulders while the taller boy kept patting Shuichi on the back as if to make sure he was still there, saying something that sounded like a pep talk. Shuichi was having trouble processing it. There was probably some point in time when they sat waiting on the curb. It was hard to remember.

Ten minutes.

When the police arrived Korekiyo was just coming to in time to be arrested. He had regained his composure enough to tell the officers there had been a mistake, but Shuichi wordlessly handed the lead detective his phone with the recorded file open. Kaito's jacket was switched out for a shock blanket and Shuichi was questioned by the police.

He felt Korekiyo's cold gaze on him as he explained the incident from his perspective. Korekiyo was arrested and the police officer informed Shuichi that with his evidence Korekiyo would most likely be charged with two counts of first degree murder and one of sexual assault. It was late and one of the officers knew Shuichi's uncle, so the three of them were sent home and told that they would be contacted again in the event that there was a trial. Kaito drove them home and asked why there wouldn't be a trial and Shuichi found himself info dumping everything that he knew about the legal trial system and plea deals and different kinds of defenses and prosecuting strategies that would not require further testimony from them. It was a distraction from the persistent "what if" anxieties that ran rampant through his brain.

Really… just ten minutes...

When he got home, his uncle told him he had heard what had happened. He told Shuichi he had been reckless and that he should have come to him with this investigation. Just as Shuichi was sure his uncle was going to kick him out for good, he wrapped him in a ginormous bear hug and said "I'm just glad you're safe."

And it was… nice.

But Shuichi's skin still crawled from all of the places he had been touched that night.

He took a very long shower then went to bed and didn't sleep a wink.

It felt like hours.

The next morning Shuichi got up, brushed his teeth, changed into his school uniform, and walked to Kaito's house. Kaito had apparently slept like a rock because it took him a while to get down when Shuichi texted him. He asked Kaito to drive him to school. He just couldn't handle worrying about what all the people on the bus might think of him today. Of course they probably wouldn't know anything at all about what happened to Shuichi last night. His name would be kept out of the papers even if the news of Korekiyo's arrest got out. This case was a footnote in Shuichi's career, just like the first one. But God… those eyes…

Kaito and Shuichi got to school very early and spent the time before class sitting in their usual spot in the cafeteria.

Shuichi leaned over the table dozing off while Kaito sat next to him doing math homework.

Homework that Shuichi too had forgotten. But he was too tired to even try to process all the shapes and proofs he would have to have memorized in geometry that day.

When the bus from the orphanage came twenty-five minutes before class started, Maki joined them at the table, sitting across from Shuichi.

She pulled out her completed math homework and started critiquing Kaito's work while Shuichi numbly wondered how she had found the time to do it, with everything that had happened last night.

It was so… normal. So safe. For the first time in twenty four hours Shuichi was starting to relax and doze off.

That was until he felt two cold fingers poke him in the back of the neck. Shuichi nearly jumped out of his skin, standing bolt upright.

"Jeez what was that reaction, Saihara?" Oh. Okay. It was just Ouma. Shuichi tried to tell that to his galloping heart beat. 

Where was he?

"Hey, back off rat bastard. Shuichi didn't sleep well last night."

It happened in ten minutes.

"Is that so?" Ouma asked, grin in his voice, "What was he doing, renting himself out as a male escort?"

He can’t be here.

"ImsorryIhavetogo" Shuichi spat out quickly, pushing aside his chair and making a beeline for the hallway.

"Shuichi! Hold up sidekick!" Kaito called out, getting up to follow after him.

As they walked away, Kokichi made a move to follow after them, but Maki grabbed his arm.

He gave her a blank look.

"Do you want to die?" She asked in lieu of explanation.

"Geez murder girl.” An eye roll. “All I wanted to do was ask Shuichi if he thought the art hallway was blocked off because there was another murder. Is that so upsetting?"

But Shuichi was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Okay, so Korekiyo's in this chapter. Expect death, murder, the cannon typical violence. There's a scene basically ripped from Korekiyo's love hotel so tw for non consensual sexual advances. Nothing explicit, but I'm trying not to trivialize this stuff like the game does sometimes.  
Let me know if there's anything specific I should warn for that I didn't cover.  
I know Korekiyo has fans and I don't hate him but can we all agree the love hotel is scary tbh. Like whats up with that team danganronpa smh.


	8. Choice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the fuck????

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings at the bottom again!

Shuichi woke up and for a moment forgot why he was asleep. How long had he been out?

"Hey! Shuichi! Wake up! Come on Shuichi, this would be a super duper boring way to die!" 

_ Ten minutes… _ He thought vaguely. Where did that number come from?

Kokichi’ voice suddenly grew more desperate. "Wake up asshole!"

Shuichi opened his eyes to a very strange scene. He found that he had been propped up in Kaito's chair and was tucked into the table. Kokichi was in Maki's chair which was a dark brown wood that had velvety red pads on the seat, back, and armrests. Kokichi's arms were secured to the rests with the Duct Tape he had been using on the windows. It was wrapped around his stomach too and although Shuichi couldn't see them beneath the table, from the way Kokichi was jerking the chair around it seemed like his legs were secured as well.

"Jeez Shumai, if you're going to just sit there and gawk you might as well have stayed dead! A waste of my necromancy skills! Do something already."

Shuichi was about to stutter out an apology and get up to help when a voice froze him in place.

"It really isn't necessary for you to do anything at all, Shuichi."

Shuichi suddenly remembered why he fainted and the floor looked awful comfortable about now. 

Logically Shuichi could observe that his movement was not restricted at all like Kokichi was. There was no Duct Tape anywhere on him or his chair, he was merely tucked into the table.

But at the same time Shuichi was trussed up in red ropes and couldn't move at all. He couldn't get up to help Ouma, and he couldn't get up to call the police. Hell, he couldn't even turn around to see the face of the man standing behind him.

He heard the distinct whistle of a kettle.

Shuichi flinched away as suddenly Korekiyo's arm came into view from behind him. Shuichi felt those arms holding him down like he was nothing. They were everywhere. The white, ungloved hand carefully lowered a cup with a tea bag in it onto the table. Shuichi watched as hot water was poured into the cup, and the bag bobbed up and down, dragging streaks of crimson into the swirling water.

He remained frozen as Korekiyo moved around him, coming into full view. He looked completely different and yet exactly the same.

Shuichi watched as he set out another cup in front of Kokichi and was reminded vividly of Kiyo's freshman year communications presentation where he taught the class about Japanese tea ceremonies.

Kokichi tried to bite at Korekiyo's arm, but he couldn't reach far enough.

Korekiyo frowned at him.

"I was going to cut free your left hand so that you could have tea with us, but at this rate I think you would just throw it back into my face."

Kokichi gave him an innocent expression, "Who? Me? That doesn't sound like me at all, does it Shuichi?"

But all Shuichi heard was the words "Cut free."

As Korekiyo turned around and settled into Shuichi's navy blue armchair with his own cup of tea, Shuichi took note of the sword sheath at his hip. It… had a sword in it.

Shuichi remembered the girl who had been stabbed in the back of the head, trussed up in red rope and left to bleed out on the gym floor.

The blood is dry, she must have been killed last night. That's what Shuichi had thought when he saw the body. What time was it now? Still the afternoon. Maki wasn't home yet.

Ten minutes- GOD why could his brain not stop that???

Korekiyo Shinguji was in his house. This was the nightmare scenario. He had to do something. He couldn’t do anything. Yes he could. No he couldn’t. Fuck.

Korekiyo was talking.

"It's good that you woke up. I know that my tying up Ouma here may be rather distressing, but I did honestly intend to discuss something with you, Shuichi."

Shuichi stared at him blankly, mind reeling. He kept saying his name. He knew who he was. He was in his house. Shuichi’s chest felt tight and his head felt light.

"He tried to knock me out right after you fainted, and we had a bit of a tussle. He's not hurt, just restricted so rest assured."

He's not hurt. Kokichi wasn't hurt. Shuichi wasn't hurt either. But when Shuichi thought about the sword Korekiyo had the only word he heard was yet. You haven't been murdered. Yet.

Ouma was talking. "-and tied to a chair by a murderer while my highschool crush is passed out on the ground is the most relaxing non-painful thing in the world! Everything is absolutely hunky dory!"

Korekiyo pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You know you were always my least favorite classmate."

"Oh that's too bad, I really would have loved to be in the good graces of a murderer. My biggest dream in Sophomore year was to get stalked and killed by my beeest frieeeend Kiyo! Not! Fuck you!"

Kiyo took a sip of his tea while Ouma struggled in his chair and almost tipped himself over.

"You know I was going to put a piece of tape over his mouth as well, but I wouldn't want to distress you any further, Shuichi."

Don’t say my name. Shuichi wanted to yell. 

"Hey do you know what would make Shuichi really relaxed? If you leaned over here and let me bite through your jugular!"

What was this scenario? Why was this happening?

"... But its gotten to the point where his incessant chattering is becoming a bigger obstruction to my goal that your nerves would be."

"Y-y-y-your g-goal?" Shuichi stuttered out, suddenly remembering he could speak.

"Yes." Replied Kiyo, taking another sip of his orangey red tea. He looked pleased. Shuichi felt sick. Wow it sure smelled like tea in here. Was that even a complete thought? Shuichi needed to remember to breathe. 

"Wha-what goal is th-that exactly?" Shuichi asked, trying to slip out of his nerves. He was in his own home sitting at his own dining room table with a cup from his own kitchen with tea his own room mate had bought the other day.

"I'll reiterate once more. I just want to have a discussion, and then ask you a question." He took another sip. It was weird to see him without his mask on. He had never taken it off in High School. Shuichi thought he had some immunodeficiency or was afraid of getting sick or something. 

"Since you don't seem to be feeling rather talkative, I can start us off."

"Well you know I'm sure Shuichi has a lot of things he'd like to say to you first! Maybe something about how stupid and ugly you are! Yup that sounds like something Shuichi would say for sure!"

Korekiyo grimaced, setting down his tea cup and making a move for Kaito's solar system Duct Tape dispenser. 

"D-dont." Shuichi managed to bite down on his stutter and say the word firmly. "We can talk. Wha-what did you want to say to me?"

Kokichi gave him a look like he was crazy but Korekiyo looked delighted. He let go of the Ring of Saturn that served as the tape dispenser's handle (it was a _ really _ weird tape dispenser why did Kaito buy it) and turned his attention back to Shuichi.

"Well the first thing I want to say is thank you."

"Wha-what?" Shuichi's head spun. He had wondered many times what the people he had put away for murder might say to him if they had the chance but never in a million years would he have expected that.

Korekiyo nodded at him acknowledgingly while he took another sip of tea. "Truth be told I've done horrendous things." He looked down into his cup as if he could see something in there. "I watched the life drain from two living human beings as I held them down. What an absolutely horrendous thing to do." He took another sip of tea.

"Oh, so you're only just realizing this now. Oh how sad for you Kiyo! If only you had realized sooner before you decided murder was good! And killed two people. But you feel bad about it now so it's toootally fine!"

Korekiyo snorted, turning a cold gaze to Ouma, "Of course it isn't. There is no making up for that."

"... There really isn't." Shuichi said in a soft voice, looking down into his own tea cup. He hadn't drank any of it and didn't intend to. He couldn't shake the feeling that it was probably poisoned, even if that seemed counterintuitive to Korekiyo's claimed motive.

Kiyo nodded in affirmation of Shuichi's softly spoken statement. "See Shuichi, you're not exactly like the cops who locked me up are you? I know that you have your own private practice now. Maybe that's why you aren't calling the police right now." He swirled the tea cup he held in his hand. There was probably just the bag and a little water in the bottom of the cup by now. Kiyo talked like Shuichi had a choice. Like he didn’t have a sword. Like he couldn’t pin him like a butterfly on a wall. "Because more than the law, more than moving up the ranks and becoming someone our society seems important, you seek the truth. So think of what I'm about to tell you as closure."

Shuichi had thought this case was already closed. But apparently not.

"The thing about my Sophomore year is that my elder sister died at the beginning of the year."

Korekiyo put his hand to his face. His bare hand. No gloves. But that was still the hand that grabbed Shuichi and pushed him down. "I had with my sister, what I assumed to be a very close relationship. She was constantly sick but always found… ways to spend time with me." Korekiyo went on, "As you know, my family hired a defense team that got me the insanity plea. Although I believed it inaccurate at the time, I was in a very unstable place of mind."

"Oh yeah, we couldn't tell by how you murdered two people." Ouma interjected with a bored expression. God this was surreal.

Korekiyo ignored him, barreling on, "As part of my imprisonment I was required to visit regularly with a counselor. I eventually worked out that the relationship I had with my sister consisted of her, an adult woman, sexually and emotionally abusing me, her much younger brother. Without any frame of reference, I had assumed that the complex emotions I felt towards my sister were what love was, and I developed this frankly monstrous complex that led me to try and send her "friends" in the after life." Korekiyo was looking into his tea again. "Before I would send them off I would show them what 'love' was from my frame of reference, which was in fact terrible and deranged."

He looked up at Shuichi. "For what it is worth, I am genuinely regretful of the way my actions in this regard harmed you specifically, Shuichi."

Was that worth anything? Shuichi’s brain screamed, his thoughts a wind tunnel. When the memory of Korekiyo attacked him in the night he never wished for an apology. He just wished it away, wished it hadn’t happened, wished he had been less stupid, wished Korekiyo had been less wicked. He wanted to forget. If Korekiyo was here to apologize it certainly wasn’t for Shuichi, but only for himself. 

Ouma turned to Shuichi with his blank calculating face, but Shuichi was still avoiding eye contact, looking down at his own reflection in the full tea cup. His face was grotesque and pale to himself even reflected in the deep red of the tea. Guilt and shame and fear and most surprisingly anger swirled in his gut. But his face was tight and motionless.

"Once I came to this realization, I decided that I deserved my life sentence, even as I was getting better every day. But something occurred to me."

Kiyo grabbed the tea pot and poured himself some more hot water. "Have you ever thought about how in our society, we seem to have a hierarchy of who has permission to kill who?" He took a sip. "My cellmate was beat to death by a guard, but the guard didn't go to prison. This was because my cell mate was deemed killable in the hierarchy of our society. The same goes for shoplifting teenagers shot down by the cops or the millions left to starve to death by the ignorance of the opulent. Yet the only people we call murderers are those who end lives out of turn." 

"Uh. Just because those guys are also murderers doesn't mean you're not a murderer too asshole."

Ouma's comment went seemingly unheard by Korekiyo as he went on. "My study of past civilizations in my youth lends credence to the idea that this is simply human nature, to decide upon who is fit to kill and who is fit to live, forming a society around these concepts. The ancient Aztecs held up a highly advanced society that demanded regular human sacrifice. Ancient Europeans decided who it was okay to kill and save based on what god they believed in.”

Shuichi’s head swirled, trying to follow Korekiyo’s logic through his own torrent of emotions.

“... and even fifty years ago in our own country some random prison guard would have been handed the lethal injection to send my own soul to wherever souls go."

"Yours? Definitely hell. Trust me I know a guy." 

"And so I thought to myself, this society that we live in seems that those who do serious crimes, even when very young, should be punished for those crimes without any chance to better themselves or re-enter society. And perhaps in my case that is absolutely fair. No society that has existed previously has the perfect answer for what to do with murderers. For most the answer is kill them. And, well, who am I to argue with millennia of our history?”

What.

“Then I thought, of everyone in the world who do I think has the most right to kill me of anyone alive? The officer who arrested me? The family members of my victims? No, truly there is one person in the world who most deserves to kill me. Which leads me to my question."

Korekiyo pulled out his sword, a katana with a golden hilt, and placed it in the middle of the table. Shuichi noted that where a moment ago he would have felt fear, only cold dread dropped down his spine.

"Shuichi Saihara, truly you deserve to kill me. The last of my victims. The only one left alive."

The sword sat on the table. Shuichi sat at the table. He stared at the sword, just in his arm's reach.

The first thing he thought was that he really didn't want his fingerprints on that. The second thought was less of a singular thought and more of a stream of panic. He was being given a choice. This was another thing he never would have expected from this encounter. He hadn't had a choice.

"Hell yeah Shuichi! Stab that bastard in the heart!"

He always thought he had choices. That his nightmares were his own fault for a dumb scheme.

"This is why _ you're _tied up."

But maybe the options had always been sanctioning the death of another or sacrificing his own peace of mind.

"Oh yeah and definitely not just because you're a lunatic! 'oh hey Shuichi, just broke out of prison! I'm a totally reformed, let me just break into your house and tie up your friend then make tea like everything is normal and then rant about the ills of society.'"

Was he really being given a choice now?

"You know you've been the single biggest obstacle in all of this."

The choice to kill.

"Are you calling me fat? So mean! Waah!"

Shuichi shook his head and just kept shaking it. This situation was so fucking bizarre. Straight out of a nightmare. Only Shuichi's nightmares were never this lucid.

Was there really a choice?

Shuichi was shaking. Eyes had settled on him, awaiting his response. One night he had been shivering. He was in a field watching the stars. Kaito slapped him on the back. He said, "The past is the past, choose who you are now."

Shuichi let stars clear his head.

"I-I don't want to… to kill anyone…" he murmured, hesitating. Well, one fact came ready to his mind. He wasn't a killer. "To be honest, I really do despise the things that you did, and I can't forgive you." Shuichi looked Korekiyo in the eye. "You made me afraid of a lot of things. Buttoned shirts, closed spaces, physical contact… but… you don't get to make me a killer. You made me a victim but you can't make me a killer. Not ever."

Shuichi kept looking him in the eyes. In his nightmares they were snake like and predatory, but in reality they looked wan and worn down. Korekiyo looked old now. Tired. Shuichi tried to keep the stars in his eyes.

Korekiyo tilted his head curiously. "Interesting." He said. "Are you sure you won't reconsider?" Korekiyo was the one to look away this time. Looking at his own tired eyes in his own half filled mug. "Am I not a blight on this society? Am I not unstable? Have I not haunted you all these years?"

"You? Un stable? Like a place where french horses stay?"

Korekiyo glared at Kokichi. "Is this all a joke to you?"

Kokichi snorted. "Uh, yeah duh." He leaned back, suddenly pretending to be comfortable whereas before he had been struggling against the bindings. "You're nothing but a joke, Shinguji." His eyelids lowered into a glare. "I'd make fun of you more but you're not even worth the effort. So I'll just say something something seesaw and be done with it." He spat at Korekiyo like a llama and it landed directly in his tea.

Korekiyo tensed and Shuichi's mind raced trying to figure out the best way to not die when he snapped, but the tension faded and Korekiyo looked back up at him.

"See?" He asked, tone carefully constrained. "Even now when you see my anger you fear for your life. Would you unleash that back into our society?"

"I-I…" Shuichi's head spun wondering what his civic responsibility here was. "I suppose it would be too much to hope that you would go along quietly back to prison…"

"Probably." Korekiyo said bluntly. "After spending so many years there, one realizes that prison really isn't good for anyone or anything."

Prison had seemed like a very good thing to Shuichi when he was sixteen and finally able to sleep easy after Kiyo's final trial day, knowing he would never have to see him again.

Look how that turned out.

Now Shuichi wasn't so sure it would be effective reassurance. If Korekiyo could just break out at any time really what was stopping him?

"Wha-what are you going to do, then?"

Korekiyo leaned back in his seat, looking thoughtful. "I'll probably try to reintegrate into society. Get a job at a fast food restaurant or something of the like. Get a paycheck to start a life with. Maybe buy more books on anthropology."

Shuichi shuddered imagining walking into McDonalds and seeing Korekiyo Shinguji behind the register. He took a deep breath, steadying himself for what he was going to say.

"Listen, Korekiyo. I'm not going to kill you. I honestly don't care what you happens to you now. Just, please… whatever you do now, do it far, far away from here. I just… I never want to see you again."

That was the reassurance he wanted, feeble as it seemed.

Korekiyo was silent for a moment. 

Kokichi was still giving him a disgusted look.

Shuichi's eyes were determined.

Then he stood up. He picked up the sword, holding it aloft for a second. Then he slid it smoothly back into the sheath at his side. He bowed to Shuichi, lowly and slowly, before turning around and exiting through the front door.

Another moment of silence as Kokichi and Shuichi watched the closed door.

"..."

"..."

"Good riddance." Kokichi spat as Shuichi found himself breathing normally for the first time since he had stirred in this chair.

"Oh my God Ouma are you alright?" Shuichi asked, pushing out his chair and getting up after discovering his legs were in fact not encased in concrete.

"Pff, this? This is nothing. You should've seen the other guy."

Ouma leaned back in the seat as Shuichi tugged at the bindings on his right wrist.

"I did see the other guy," he fretted, "and he had a katana."

"Pff. Details details."

There was a moment of silence as Shuichi examined the knot of Ductape.

"What about you?"

Shuichi was startled by the question. "What? What about me?"

"Are _ you _ alright, Shuichi?" Kokichi was giving him a blank look, seemingly anticipating his answer.

Shuichi realized he was still shaking. He was still processing what had just happened. More than that though, he was floored by Kokichi's question and he wasn't quite sure why.

"... I don't know if you've ever asked me that before." He realized as he said it. "I… I think you mostly just assume that I'm alright or not alright and proceed with a course of action from there."

Kokichi blinked at him before looking away. "Well… " he said, "I'm starting to realize that maybe I assumed wrong about some things."

Shuichi laughed a little weakly. "You? Assume something about someone incorrectly? Unheard of."

Kokichi sighed. "I know. This is like the first time ever. If you tell anyone I'm going to have to abdicate…"

"Well. Thanks for asking… I…" Shuichi shuddered a bit, the full implications of what just happened settling in on him. He shook his head. "I-I think I'll feel a lot better after I get you out of this."

Kokichi stayed silent as he got to work.

It turned out that the Duct Tape wasn't actually just wrapped around Kokichi's hands taping him to the chair, but actually woven into sort of rope that was tied tightly around Kokichi's hands. It was more considerate for Maki's chair but not so much Kokichi's circulation. Shuichi had to grab scissors from the kitchen to break through the wrappings.

When both Kokichi's hands were free he scoffed. "Jeeeeez what a major creepo. I bet he got off on tying me up. You really should've killed that guy Shumai." He rubbed his wrists pointedly, but Shuichi was pretty sure he didn't really mean it. Kokichi was one of the most anti-murder people he'd ever met. And that was saying something considering how many police officers and homicide detectives he brushed elbows with in his day to day life. Though, maybe that said more about most police officers than Ouma himself.

As if reading his mind, or maybe it was just common sense, Kokichi declared, "Welp, I'm calling the fucking cops on that asshole." He grabbed the phone that Shuichi realized now had been sitting on the table the whole time.

Shuichi was suddenly remembering a lot of things about his surroundings. The tape on his windows… the papers at Kokichi's house… the painted windows...

"You knew something about this didn't you."

Ouma froze at the accusation. He set the phone down on the table. He then struck a dramatic pose, or at least did the best he could with his free limbs, and cried out "It's true Detective Saihara! I was the real murderer the whole time. Take me away!"

Shuichi frowned. "You know that's not what I meant. You knew that Korekiyo was coming here, didn't you?"

"How could little ol' me know a thing like that?" Ouma batted his eyes innocently at Shuichi as the detective snipped through the binding around his stomach.

"Well, I have a theory." 

"Oh I love this part!" Kokichi stood up, his feet on the ground but legs still attached to the chair as Shuichi bent down to tug them free. "Come on, what delusional case do you have for me in that big head of yours this time Mr. Detective?" He patted the top of Shuichi's head like a bongo drum.

"Well some of it is based on character evidence, which may or may not hold up." Shuichi pulled off the last binding and got up to put the wasted Duct Tape in the trash. "Do you remember in junior year when those upperclassmen destroyed your science fair project and instead of telling anyone about it you orchestrated a plot to make them destroy everyone's projects on camera, so that they'd get in trouble and your grade wouldn't suffer?"

"Hmm, no not at all. I'm pretty sure you made that one up Shumai" Kokichi stretched and sat right back down into Maki's seat.

"Well it's an anecdote that shows a couple things about you." Shuichi went on with the assumption that Kokichi was lying. "It would have been a lot easier to just tell a teacher or your group mates about the incident, but instead you tried to cover it up. You like to take care of problems on your own, even if they might negatively affect other people. Additionally, even if you're helping the people on your team, you don't want them to know there was a problem in the first place until it's solved."

Shuichi picked up the tea cups on the table and started to clean them up in the sink.

"So here's what I think happened." He continued. "About a month ago you probably read about Korekiyo's escape somewhere and recognized the name from school. You thought 'Wow. What ever happened to that guy.' and looked up the case record, which by now has been made public. My name wasn't mentioned in the file, but whatever information was included along with your vast knowledge of action manga revenge plots lead you to believe that Korekiyo might be out to kill me. You researched where I lived, found out about my private eye business and also learned of my unique relationship with the police in an article about one of my cases. So you moved to your penthouse in this town and beefed up the security, even going so far as to paint over the windows. You then calculated how long it would take for a person to get here from Korekiyo's prison using non-commercial means of travel. You left a mess of paper maps and math in the corner of your living room. Then, on the day you calculated, you harassed a police officer until he arrested you and managed to be so difficult that you were interrogated for several crimes you definitely didn't commit and the police had to call me in. You then distracted me the whole day and took me to your house, at the top floor of a building with extremely high tech security, and tried to dissuade me from going home after hearing that someone had broken into my house. You, in fact, knew who that someone was. Instead of just telling me why I shouldn't go home, you decided to come with and just beef up my apartment's security instead… and, well, we both know the rest from there. This is exactly the crazy kind of stunt you'd pull to save the life of your high school crush. This is the truth behind your lies, Kokichi Ouma!" With that line Shuichi struck a pose, pointing at Kokichi accusingly with a wet tea cup in his grip.

Ouma gave him a blank look. For a moment Shuichi thought he was completely off base and suddenly felt self conscious. Then Kokichi said, "Who ever said you were my Highschool crush? Sounds like a liar to me."

Shuichi guessed that meant he was right on the money and he laughed a little at the absurdity of Kokichi's denial. He felt comforted in some way, that Ouma had thought.to look out for him after all this time. "You did. You told Korekiyo, literally moments ago."

"Me? Then it was definitely said by a liar because I'm the worst one there is!"

Shuichi laughed. This was kind of odd. The whole to do with Kiyo had been traumatizing when he was a teen. Sometimes it had been the only thing he could think about. But nowadays he thought about it so rarely that this whole scenario was really a huge shock to him. He really did feel like things would be alright if he just never saw Korekiyo again. Now that he was just alone with Kokichi, Shuichi felt settled back into his own skin and was a little alarmed at how quickly bantering with Kokichi had put him at ease. They spent the next hour just slipping back into their rapport, with Kokichi asking bizarre questions and lying incessantly and Shuichi parsing through it all to see the good humor within. He thought about talking about what had happened more in depth, but he shied away from the topic every time it came to him. The bizarre situation just didn't fit into the steps of their conversation. That's what talking to Kokichi was like. A dance where he knew all the steps…

Shuichi was broken out of his reverie when he noticed it was already 4:56 pm.

"Oh, Maki will be home soon." Shuichi observed. He gave Kokichi a sheepish look. "She, uh, probably wouldn't be too pleased to see you here." Especially since Kokichi had torn her curtain helping Shuichi take the tape off the windows. "But, uh, maybe we could do this again sometime?"

"This?" Kokichi gave him a blank look. "You mean a kidnapping? Or do you mean the-"

"Yeah, a date." Shuichi looked away. "It's been really nice hanging out with you. It… kind of feels like picking up right where we left off. So, even if you didn't think we were dating… I was wondering if maybe we could _ really _ pick up where we left off?"

Ouma made a face at him. "Ew. Gross. You're so mushy Shumai." As he said it, he grabbed a pen from a countertop and started writing a string of digits long enough to be a phone number on a napkin. "Here," he said, handing the paper to Shuichi, "type this number into your phone and the world will explode."

Shuichi laughed. "Alright, alright, I'll text you."

As he followed Kokichi too the door he hesitated "Er Kokichi…"

Ouma turned to look at him. "What?"

Before he could change his mind Shuichi leaned down and softly placed his lips on Kokichi's cheek before retreating back to his full height. "Thanks again."

Kokichi smiled at him with full force. "That was so gross, my beloved! You should do it again!"

"Well maybe I would have if you had warned me about this whole thing earlier. Now get out of here before Maki gets here."

"Roger that!" Kokichi saluted before backing out of the opened door and turning to skip away.

Shuichi felt the buzz of warmth on his lips as he closed the door.

_ That was nice _. He thought to himself, sitting down on the couch and pulling out his phone.

He chose that. He had the choice.

_ This is nice. _ Shuichi corrected himself as he entered Kokichi's number into his phone.

This was what he chose for himself. Something nice.

And the world didn't explode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Korekiyo again, more explicit references to the whole sister thing and also psychological trauma. Some mention of self victim blaming and some pseudo-philosophical suicidal ideation. Happy ending, don't worry.
> 
> Ending thoughts:  
Wow I can't believe I wrote the whoooole thing! This started off at 40 pages and ended at 72 on my google doc by the time I was done with it. You might be able to tell already, but this fic was kind of like a reflection on reflection? I wanted to write a trauma survivor who kind of has complex feelings about the past. A lot of people who have tough high school years never get the chance to live in the moment, and I feel like we're surprised when we reflect back on parts of dark times in our lives as kind of positive. I also just wanted to write Shuichi and Kokichi because they're both gay losers who I find hilarious.  
So what comes next for me and this fic? I came up with a lot of ideas for their high school years while writing this, so I might write some one shots about them in the future and make a kind of prequel series to this? Let me know if that sounds cool. I've also made a tumblr for this account at "https://s-j-ace.tumblr.com/" but I haven't posted anything yet lol. Send me requests or asks there haha. I also wrote this oneshot about Shuichi and Kokichi hanging out on a plane while on a five hour flight last week so that might be the first thing to go up there once I edit it. As always thanks so much to everyone for reading!


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